Question

To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will make an assessment of the number of surveys planned during the (a) Summer and (b) Conference recesses in connection with maintenance work on the Palace of Westminster.

There is planned activity for over 23 projects in the Palace of Westminster during the Summer recess, and there will also be planned maintenance and reactive maintenance work. Many activities will continue in the Conference recess.

Teams will carry out surveys prior to and during the Summer and Conference recesses; surveys are required before any work can commence.

Surveys will range from visual checking of spaces (for example, identifying cable routes, or taking audits of equipment/assets) to more intrusive work, such as digging as part of ground investigations, or putting up scaffold to conduct a stonework survey.

Survey work for the recesses is still being finalised, and individual projects might identify the need for more surveys after work commences. For this reason, it would be difficult to put a figure on the number of surveys in the Palace over the Summer and Conference recesses, but it is likely to be over a hundred.