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 letter from David Metcalfe and Dr Stephen Ledbetter of the Centre for Window and Cladding Technology to the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, dated 10 May 2018, whether it was his Department's policy in 2014 that paragraph 12.7 of Approved Document B of the fire safety regulations did not apply to cladding.

The Department’s position is that the core (filler) within an Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) is an “insulation material/product”, “insulation product”, and/or “filler material” as referred to in Paragraph 12.7 (“Insulation Materials/Products”) in Section 12 “Construction of external walls” of Approved Document B (Fire safety) Volume 2 Buildings other than dwelling houses.

This was made clear in the letter issued by the Permanent Secretary on 22 June 2017 available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/621449/170622_letter_to_LAs_and_HAs.pdf