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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 214560 on Buildings: Insulation, whether building material such as cladding or insulation that fails the bespoke test will be removed.

The Department’s Advice Note 14, issued in December 2017 and updated in December 2018, made clear that if non-Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) materials in cladding systems are not of limited combustibility, or are not part of a wall system which has passed a BS 8414 test, building owners should take professional advice and consider remediation measures, with the clearest way to ensure fire safety being to remove unsafe materials. The forthcoming bespoke test programme is designed to investigate the burning behaviour of selected types of non-ACM cladding products. The Department will consider, in the light of the findings of the tests, and with the advice of the Independent Expert Panel, whether any further action is necessary.