Building and Fire Safety Working Group minutes: June 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Miinister for Housing (Chair)
• Minister for Victims and Community Safety
• Alan Johnston – Policy and Programme Division (Cladding Remediation)
• Andrew Dailly – Workforce, Infrastructure and Digital Division
• Andrew Gunn – Building Standards Division
• Benny Rooney – Building Standards Division
• Chris Getty – Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
• Colette Templeton – Building Standards Division
• Colin Judge – Property and Construction Division
• Emer Delaney – Ministerial Private Offices
• Emily Hornsey – Ministerial Private Offices
• Frank Doherty – Building Standards Division
• Gavin Hammond – Safer Communities Division
• Neil Mitchell - Building Standards Division
• Stephen Garvin – Head of Building Standards Division
• Stuart Morrison – Building Standards Division
• William Connolly – NHS Scotland

Apologies

• Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice

Items and actions

Welcome and Action points

The Chair welcomed attendees to the meeting and invited an update on actions from the last meeting in June. The following updates were provided:

• AP1 – consider possibility of Ministers attending the planned [Grenfell] presentation:
  The presentation took place in January 2025. Due to time constraints, Ministers were unable to attend
• AP2 – submission to Ministers regarding [RAAC] recommendations and survey/ debrief report:
  The submission was provided in December 2024, with Ministers agreeing to the recommendations
• AP3 – officials to provide further update [on large panel systems] by submission:
  A submission was provided in January 2025
• AP4 – cost data on RAAC related work to be collated for information purposes:
  Work is ongoing. However, a figure of c£100-120m for privately owned homes has been established
• AP5 – a submission to be provided on voluntary occurrence reporting to Ministers in January 2025.
  A submission was provided

It was agreed that all actions, except AP4, could be closed.

Grenfell Phase 2 Report and Reset of MWG-BFS

The Scottish Government has accepted all recommendations from the Grenfell Phase 2 report, and a summary of the actions taken since its publication has been provided. The response to the report also set out how the devolved matters would be addressed, as well as committing to working with UKG on reserved matters.

While a number of recommendations can be delivered through updated guidance, some will require new legislation to be taken forward. Ministers have committed to taking forward new legislation, with Year 1 of the next Parliamentary session likely to be the earliest.

In order to monitor and report on progress implementing the recommendations, it was proposed that this meeting’s membership, frequency and Terms of Reference be revised. This could include an expanded membership and meetings every three months, rather than six-monthly. Ministers accepted the recommendations in the paper on the reset. It was noted that a revised Terms of Reference will be provided to Ministers for approval.

AP1: Submission with Revised Terms of Reference to be provided to Ministers for approval.

RAAC in Housing

Members noted that one housing association had yet to conclude their assessments of properties for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) and that figures for RAAC affected properties in the Dundee City Council area had increased.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) would shortly be publishing a consumer guide on RAAC in residential settings intended to support tenants, landlords and homeowners. This would complement guidance being developed by the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) on the assessment and remediation of RAAC in residential settings to support the work of surveyors and engineers.

The RAAC in Housing sub-group continued to meet with representation from affected landlords. It was in the process of setting up a further group specifically to consider issues around remediating mixed tenure and privately owned properties.

Members noted the petitions currently with the Scottish and UK Parliaments calling for funding to support affected homeowners and tenants, a public inquiry into council and housing association practices on RAAC and certain legislative changes.

Given RAAC was a UK wide issue the Scottish Government continued to call on the UK Government to establish a UK wide fund to support RAAC remediation. This had been, so far, without effect. The Minister for Housing had recently visited Aberdeen and met with the Council and residents. A similar visit to Dundee was being arranged. Emphasis was placed on support for individual Councils at this time and encouragement for them to put forward solutions appropriate to local priorities and circumstances, within existing budgets.

Fire Safety Review/Cameron House Hotel

The consultation on outcomes and proposals of the Expert Working Group closed on 13 March, with 40 responses received. While analysis of responses is ongoing, early findings indicate general agreement with the proposals. A consultation response would be published on the Scottish Government website in due course.

In discussion, the Minister for Victims & Community Safety noted the sensitivities around this area and stressed that communication with the families of the victims must take place before any public communications.

AP2: A submission to Ministers on outcomes and options will be provided.

AP3: The Minister for Victims & Community Safety will write to the mother of Simon Midgley to provide a brief overview of the work to date and to summarise the policy direction once agreed with Ministers.

Verbal updates

Large Panel Systems (LPS)

Late last year we were notified of issues arising in two large panel system buildings in Glasgow where, following a gas supply issue, there was an intervention from the gas network operator, Scottish Gas Networks. In the absence of evidence the building was altered to be suitable for gas supply, that supply was disconnected.

This relates to historic concerns over the suitability of older LPS buildings for gas supply which stemmed from the Ronan Point disaster in May 1968. That incident led to changes in building regulations across the UK around 1970 to address the risk of disproportionate collapse from accidental damage, such as from a gas explosion.

The introductory meeting of the new Building Safety Forum took place on 21 May and there is a proposal for LPS as a discussion topic at our next meeting.

There is therefore an opportunity to bring members up to date with current activity on this issue, both in relation to gas supply as a risk factor and how this is being addressed from the supply side. Also more generally on the management of older LPS stock which may not have been remediated or may not have records of action to both mitigate the risks identified in pre-1970 buildings and also the more general topic of inspection and preventative maintenance. Recognising also that there are a decreasing number of such buildings in our housing stock.

The proposal would be to bring in parties such as Scottish Gas and engineering professionals to share current practical thinking on the topic.

Aware also that the presence of LPS is amongst matters now reported in the building safety case now required for all high-rise residential buildings in England.  This assists in driving discussion and awareness of this topic at this time. It also led to IStructE recently updating their website information on LPS assessment in support of this work.

The date of the meeting is to be arranged as is involvement of speakers but we hope this would be of interest as an awareness topic for many forum members.

NHS estate

Urgent work to address RAAC at Knoll Hospital (NHS Borders) is progressing well. Design work has been completed, with work to remove RAAC due to start shortly.

The Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh is due to open shortly following completion of works related to the plumbing system.

It was also noted that NHS GG&C has removed combustible cladding from the QEUH, and work is in progress to replace it with a non-combustible product.

School estate

There has been little change from the last meeting: all schools have been surveyed for RAAC, with 40 initially found with it. Due to work already undertaken, 11 have had the RAAC removed. Of the 29 remaining, they are either in good condition, have permanent support in place or temporary solutions or part closure in place. Further work on these schools will take place during the summer holidays.

It was also noted that 9 independent schools have RAAC. While SG is not responsible for these schools, work was underway to understand their plans.

Cladding Remediation

It was noted that a significant amount of work had happened since the last Ministerial Working Group meeting.

First of all, the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024 came into effect on 6 January 2025, as did the statutory Standards for the new ‘Single Building Assessment’. On the same day, Mr McLennan set out (by means of a Government Inspired Question) the Government’s strategic objectives for the year ahead, primarily to increase the pace and breadth of action on cladding remediation.

On 25 March, the Government published a renewed Plan of Action on Cladding Remediation. Central to that was the launch that same day of the first stage of a new ‘Single Open Call’ for cladding assessment and remediation. Under that first stage, building owners (across all tenure types) are able to apply for Government support for a Single Building Assessment (SBA). Government has made an initial £10m available for those assessments.

Government also committed to launching Stage 2 by the end of June. Where a SBA has identified cladding issues and recommended action, this Stage will allow owners to apply for support for mitigation and/or remediation.

Ministers will consider support for social housing subject to the financial ability of the building owner to carry out the work. We expect that eligible bids across all tenure types will then need to be prioritised by risk.

In parallel with this, negotiations with the larger developers have continued on a ‘Developer Remediation Contract’, which is intended to enable developers to put into effect their existing commitments to assess and remediate buildings for which they have accepted responsibility. These discussions are at an advanced stage, with agreement reached on heads of terms. We hope to reach full and detailed agreement shortly.

Action continues on that subset of buildings, mainly identified through the earlier pilot programme, for which the Government has taken the lead in commissioning SBAs. 

We have also been gathering updated information on social housing properties which may be at risk from cladding. Returns have been received from local authority owners and are now being analysed. Registered Social Landlords have been asked to reply by 23 June. Based on all this, we will engage with relevant owners in relation to specific properties where we may not be assured the appropriate action has yet been taken. In doing so we will promote the potential availability of support through the Single Open Call.

Finally, the Scottish Building Safety Levy Bill, which is intended in time to raise funds to support Government spending on cladding remediation will be introduced to Parliament on 6 June. The Levy is not intended or expected to cover all possible costs. It will, as mentioned earlier, remain important to prioritise those actions that are going to reduce the risk from cladding as quickly as possible, within the budget available to us.

Any other Business/Date of Next Meeting

A short update was given on the Inter Ministerial Group meeting on 04 June.

The next meeting is scheduled to take place in September 2025.

Summary of Actions:

AP1: Revised Terms of Reference to be provided to Ministers for approval.

AP2: A submission to Ministers on outcomes and options following the fire safety consultation will be provided.

AP3: The Minister for Victims & Community Safety will write to the mother of Simon Midgley to provide a brief overview of the work to date and to summarise the policy direction once agreed with Ministers.

AP4: from 28/11/24 – Cost data on RAAC related work to be collated for information purposes.