Recommendation 8

We were concerned as to whether all the poorest quality accommodation meets minimum health and safety standards and asked why, if the accommodation used by 3% of personnel (2,388 individuals) was so poor that no rental charge was applied, it was not withdrawn from service. The Department told us that it depended on the reason why the accommodation had been downgraded to that level, but stated that if a building did not meet health and safety standards, personnel would be moved out.20 More than 50,000 Single Living Accommodation bed spaces constructed prior to 2000 would not meet the current building standards if built today. The Department explained that this related to features such as the capacity of the power systems. It said that where standards are applied retrospectively, it brings its buildings up to this level, but the majority of standards are introduced at a point in time and thereafter buildings are built to the new standard.21 The Department said it was confident that its buildings meet fire safety regulations, with formal fire risk assessments on every Single Living Accommodation building performed at least every two years.22