Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure new builds are meeting fire safety requirements.

The primary responsibility for compliance with the Building Regulations, including fire safety, rests with the person carrying out the building work. This is the builder or developer. Most building work is subject to building control either by the local authority or a private approved inspector, on a spot-check basis. It is the responsibility of the building control body to take all reasonable steps to assess compliance. However, responsibility for compliance remains with the builder or developer.

On 5 July, the Government published a clarified version of Approved Document B (fire safety) to help responsible parties to understand what steps they could take to ensure that their building complies with the building regulations.

We are currently consulting on how we propose to take forward legislative reform for building and fire safety in higher-risk residential buildings implementing recommendations made by Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review.