Wade Patel

Brandon Lewis MP Minister of State for Housing and Planning Department for Department for Communities and Local Communities and Government Local Government 4th Floor; Fry Building 2 Marsham Street London SWIP 4DF Tel; Fax: D $ Coutts-wood E-Mail HM Coroner for Leicester & South WWW gov ukldclg Leicestershire Leicester Council Our Ref; Town Hall Your Re LCi Town Hall Square Leicester 19 JAM 2015 Leicestershire 5 JAn LEI 9BG FiV-D rzr REGULATION 28 REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS Thank you for your letter of 9 October 2014, enclosing your report under Regulation 28 following your inquest into the death of Mr Wade Dahyabhai Patel whose death was caused by injuries sustained from breakage of glass resulting from a collision with a glazed door. am replying as Minister for Housing am sorry for the delay in replying: was sorry to hear about the death of Mr Patel and would like to offer sympathy to his family and friends In your letter, suggest that the Department for Communities Local Government may be able to take steps to prevent incidents of this nature occurring in the future. You will appreciate that cannot comment on the specific issues raised by this case as am not in possession of the full facts. However, have set out below a general description of the scope of Building Regulations relevant to this matter the duties of landlords and local authorities in respect of property standards. Part K (Protection from collision, falling and impact) of the Building Regulations sets out a range of requirements t0 ensure that glazing is installed in a way which makes reasorabie provision for safety, particularly in vulnerable locations such as doors, and in order that where does break it does so safely: This dloes not absolutely preclude the risk of injury from glazing but does significantly reduce the Iikely severity of those injuries However, the Building Regulations only apply where building work takes place, typically the erection or extension of a building the Building Act 1984 does not provide for the retrospective application of current standards to existing buildings. The Regulations therefore will not require that existing doors be made to comply with current standards_ unless building work subject to the Regulations is carried out to the part of the building in question: Requiring old buildings, designed and built with very different standards in mind, to meet the most modern Building Regulation requirements would have major implications for Esq City City ne 2015 very every and you and glass and

the existing building stock and the government has no plans to change the application of Building Regulations in this respect, Landlords have a common law duty to take reasonable care to ensure that a furnished dwelling is safe to be lived in. The Defective Premises Act 1972 also places a duty on landlords to take reasonable care to ensure that their tenants, or any other person likely to be affected , are reasonably safe from personal injury caused by a defect which exists at or after the time a tenancy was entered into and is due to an act or omission by the landlord which, had the landlord known about the defect, could have been rectified by maintenance or repair: The quality of privately rented housing has improved rapidly over the past decade, and levels of satisfaction compare well to other tenures. However, a small minority of properties in the sector are in poor condition. Tenants have a right to in safe and well maintained homes and Iocal authorities have strong powers to tackle poor quality accommodation in their area We expect them t0 use those powers if necessary: Where a serious hazard is identified , the local authority must take appropriate action, This can include formal action such as issuing an improvement notice requiring the owner to make improvements to the property, banning the use of the whole or of a dwelling or taking emergency action to fix the hazard where there is an immediate risk to health and safety. Local authorities use the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) to asses risks and guidance is available to landlords to help then identify risks and take remedial action The HHSRS guidance includes collisions with doors as a hazard The government has no plans to change the HHSRS am grateful to you for bringing the sad circumstances f Mr Wade Dahyabhai Patel's death to my attention and for the opportunity to set out the Government s position on these matters. BRANDON LEWIS MP live part