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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government,with reference to the statement by his Department in the newspaper article entitled, Labour blasts government for not acting on potential deathtraps after Grenfell, published on 21 June 2019, whether he will be mandating the remediation of the combination of cladding and insulation on (a) social and (b) privately owned housing.

We issued unambiguous advice to building owners over 18 months ago to reinforce existing building safety requirements which state only materials which are of limited combustibility or have passed a BS 8414 test should be used on buildings. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/765761/Expert_Panel_advice_note_on_non-ACM.pdf

Building owners should reassure themselves that any cladding used on their buildings is of limited combustibility or has passed a BS 8414 test. If not, building owners should take action to make the building safe.

The large scale (BS 8414) test referred to in the article was commissioned by a third party. The details of the test are commercially confidential. The Department is not party to the detail of the class of High Pressure Laminate (HPL) or type of system tested.

The Department has commissioned a full-scale BS 8414 test on HPL panels with non-combustible insulation. When the results are available they will inform whether any additional action is necessary over and above the advice already issued.