Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether desktop studies can still be used in lieu of tests as a route to compliance for combustible materials on high-rise hotels.

Such assessments are no longer acceptable for buildings subject to the ban on combustible materials in external walls in regulation 7(3) of the Building Regulations. For buildings outside the scope of the ban such as hotels and offices, the current requirements for limited combustibility or for the whole wall system to have passed a BS 8414 test apply.

A new standard for assessments relating to the BS 8414 cladding test is currently being drafted.