Building Safety: Cross Sector Forum minutes - September 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Built Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS)

• Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA)

• Historic Environment Scotland (HES)

• Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE)

• Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE)

• Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS)

• Ministry of Defence (MoD)

• NHS Scotland 

• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

• Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS)

• Scottish Funding Council (SFC)

• Scottish Gas Networks (SGN)

• Scottish Government officials (including Chair)

• Scottish Heads of Property Services (SHoPS)

• Scottish Property Federation (SPF)

• South Lanarkshire Council

• Wheatley Group

Items and actions

Welcome

The Chair welcomed attendees to the 2nd meeting of the Cross Sector Building Safety Forum including those joining from Sottish Gas Networks (SGN) and Wheatley Group for discussion on Large Panel Systems (LPS).

Approval of minutes and update on actions including agreement of terms of reference

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed without change.

An update on actions was provided with confirmation that one revision has been made to the Terms of Reference.   

Action – the agreed Terms of Reference to be circulated with the meeting minute.

Large panel systems – presentation and discussion

The Chair provide some brief background to the issue of LPS including technical aspects, the consequences of the Ronan Point gas explosion in 1968, more recent survey and data collection exercises and the current legislative and regulatory framework such as that established by the Building Safety Act 2022 (in England).   

Presentations were made by representatives of SGN, the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) and the Wheatley Group.

SGN provided an overview of their work noting the range of gas installations at multi-occupancy buildings, their management responsibilities including the programme of replacement work, and the relevant regulations and industry standards required to be complied with.

Further background on LPS was provided in context of Ronan Point, the renewed focus on high rise buildings post Grenfell and the availability of data on LPS buildings.

The consequences of a gas escape in the Pollokshaws area of Glasgow in October 2024 were also outlined.

Action: a request was made of forum members to provide information on sources of data to support comprehensive awareness of LPS buildings.  

IStructE provided a technical assessment of the issues involved with LPS construction including the multiple elements potentially causing deterioration.

Reference was made to the issues and implications of an assessment of properties at the Ledbury estate in London in 2017 including compromising fire separation.

In terms of assessment of LPS, the risk-based process advocated by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) was recommended along with the information on good practice provided by the Local Government Association (LGA).

Guidance on LPS was available from BRE and IStructE.

Wheatley Group provided information about their property management interests and the extensive range of macro synthetic fibre (MSF) construction types across the estate, including LPS.

Reference was made to the BRE guidance on the assessment of LPS Multi Storey Flats published in 2012, the approach taken with inspection and also to risk assessment.

Wheatley Group concluded by outlining their approach to information sharing, advice to tenants and the range of checks and inspections in place. It was also confirmed that none of their blocks were now gas supplied.

In the discussion which followed, points raised included:

• whether or not the issue of gas risers was specific to LPS properties
• the process of managing change at Pollokshaws
• delineation of gas supplier responsibilities
• the lack of a legislative requirement for owners to undertake gas safety checks
• new potential fire risks such as electric bikes
• whether or not off site construction raised certain issues
• whether or not risk of failure could be quantified
• financial considerations regarding on going management of or demolition of LPS properties
• the prevalence of LPS in non domestic buildings (awareness of presence in cellular buildings such as hotels, hospitals and prisons but such properties likely to be low rise)
• direction to sources from BRE, LGA and IStructE for guidance and best practice
• importance of ensuring awareness of all relevant networks and workstreams, such as the Construction Leadership Forum, the Transformation Action Plan Board and the Modern Methods of Construction Working Group (see Construction Leadership Forum)

Date and proposed agenda items for next meeting

Attendees were invited to consider possible items of business for the next meeting, expected in early spring 2026.

Action – attendees to contact Building Standards officials with suggestions for future agenda items.

Any other business

The Chair thanked presenters and attendees and noted that a minute would follow in due course along with a date for the next meeting (expected early spring 2026).