Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Accepted
Limited qualified professionals compromise quality and consistency of PAS 9980 fire risk assessments.
Conclusion
The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) told us that the PAS 9980 standard for assessing the fire safety risk of external walls relied on specialist knowledge of building construction, fire engineering principles and material performance. The NFCC warned that there was limited availability of qualified professionals, and that its members were concerned that current PAS 9980 assessments were not meeting the intended standard. We also heard concerns from End Our Cladding Scandal and the NFCC about the inconsistent quality of fire risk appraisals and different assessors drawing different conclusions about what remediation work was required. The NFCC also told us that some PAS 9980 assessments were unjustifiably supporting the retention of combustible materials.29
Government Response Summary
The government committed to updating the Committee by July 2025 on its ongoing work to increase capacity and skills across the building sector to accelerate remediation, including providing additional funding for the Building Safety Regulator and working with mayoral strategic areas.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: July 2025 The government agrees to update the Committee on the work it is doing to increase capacity and skills across the building sector to accelerate remediation, by the end of July 2025. Progressing remediation and ensuring that residents are safe in their own homes is a priority for this government. Whilst the government accepts that the context is challenging, it does not accept that it has been complacent about the risks identified by the Committee. Examples of the work MHCLG has done to increase capacity and skills across the sector supporting government’s remediation and housebuilding objectives include: providing additional funding to boost the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) capacity of case officers; improve infrastructure, training and processes to maximise BSR’s operational efficiency; bringing in additional experienced and qualified building control inspectors from private sector Registered Building Control Approvers to bolster its capacity to deal with both remediation work and Gateway applications for new High-Rise Buildings. The department is also working with mayoral strategic areas to drive remediation through Local Remediation Acceleration Plans – bringing together expertise, local knowledge and resources to create single area strategies. In terms of capacity and skills in the construction sector, the department continually monitors and reacts to changes and capacity in the remediation supply chain, via market capacity surveys, supplier engagement forums and through continual liaison and collaboration with delivery partners.