Queries regarding Queen Elizabeth University Hospital cladding and associated costs: EIR release

Information requested

How much of the flammable cladding has been removed from the hospital [QEUH], how much has it cost and how much of the 97.1 million given to Scotland for the removal of flammable cladding remains? Has the removal started on any other buildings or any completed that have been identified as having this cladding?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

To ensure clarity and completeness, I have broken the request into individual components, with each one addressed separately in the sections that follow.

Much of the information you have requested is already publicly available and ordinarily is exempt under Regulation 6(1)(b) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Where applicable, I have however provided links directing you to the relevant material.

1. The cladding remediation cost for QEUH, as reported in media at back in 2018 and published in prior FoIs, was £6m. The QEUH remediation was therefore dealt with several years ago and out of Health budgets prior to receiving £97.1 million in Barnett consequentials from the UK Government in 2021-22. As of 2019, this work had been completed.

Furthermore, as detailed in FoI 202300365856, in February 2021, Brookfield Multiplex advised NHSGGC that they had concerns regarding the suitability of the ACM polyethylene installed in the atrium of the QEUH. Intrusive surveys were immediately commissioned by NHSGGC that confirmed the installation of ACM polyethylene products which do not comply with current Building Control standards. It is the Board's position that the wall linings installed did not meet the contract requirements and this is the subject of an ongoing legal action and it has not yet been established who is liable for the costs.

Following consultation with advisors including independently appointed Fire Engineers, NHS Scotland Assure, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Building Standards Scotland and Glasgow City Council it has been established that the wall lining panels must be replaced to sufficiently address the risk. The proposals have been developed based on replacing all the ACM polyethylene wall lining panels which equates to approximately 11,000m2. The replacement cladding system has been designed to comply with the current 2020 Technical Standard (April 2021) and provide a non-combustible certified class A2 or A1 (BS EN13501) panel.

2. The total cost to remove and replace noncompliant cladding from the interior of the hospital’s atrium is estimated at £33 million over the several years of the project.

To address the question of how much the atrium rectification has cost so far, we have identified the allocations of funding from the Scottish Government to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde shown in the table below.

Item Description	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
QEUH Campus Rectification Works	£4,550,000
QEUH Campus Rectification Works		£3,480,000
QEUH Campus Rectification Works Cladding			£8,218,000
QEUH Campus Rectification Works - project team			£204,000
QEUH Rectification Campus Works & Staffing			£84,000
QEUH - Atrium and other items				£6,406,000

Please note that these allocations may include budget for aspects of the QEUH rectification project other than the replacement of cladding, and that other budget not represented here may have contributed to the atrium rectification project.

3. The Scottish Government received £97.1 million in Barnett consequential from the UK Government to support a national cladding remediation programme addressing dangerous cladding on high-rise residential buildings. Expenditure under the Cladding Remediation Programme totalled £15.9 million from financial year 2021/22 to 31 December 2025, including capital expenditure, waking watch costs, and professional advice (both legal and accounting).

Financial information - Scotland’s Cladding Remediation Programme monthly management information: December 2025 - gov.scot

Barnett consequentials are not ring-fenced and form part of the overall Scottish Budget. Funding for the Cladding Remediation Programme is allocated through the annual Scottish Budget process.

4. No additional ACM has been removed from buildings that were directly commissioned, or funded through the grants award process, for properties registered via the Single Open Call. The Single Open Call is an online platform that allows owners and managers of residential buildings (over 11m in height, built or refurbished between 1992 and 2022) to apply for funding for a Single Building Assessment (SBA) and, where appropriate, any resulting mitigation or remediation work.

However, it is worth noting that some of the information you have requested is not held by the Scottish Government so we are therefore applying Regulation 10(4)(a) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), which allows a public authority to refuse a request where it does not hold the information.

This information is not held because there may be buildings where ACM cladding has already been removed by developers who have signed the Developer Remediation Contract, or by local authorities. However, the Scottish Government will not have visibility of these cases until formal progress reporting begins. As a result, we are unable to confirm the current status of such buildings at this time.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.