Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the guidance note entitled, Building safety advice for building owners, including fire doors, what support his Department is providing to freeholders affected by the provisions of that guidance note.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Building owners are responsible for the safety of their buildings and must ensure that they act on any safety concerns they find. The Independent Expert Advisory Panel consolidated advice is for building owners. It advises building owners what actions they should take to ensure their building is fire safe.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the guidance note entitled, Building safety advice for building owners, including fire doors, what discussions he has had with representatives from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors on the EWS1 forms for leaseholders.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has regular engagement with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors on a variety of issues, including the operation of the EWS1 form.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what funding the Government is providing to remove unsafe cladding from residential buildings below 18 metres in height.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We are investing £1.6 billion to support the remediation of unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) and unsafe non-ACM cladding systems on private and social residential buildings above 18 metres.
Dame Judith Hackitt – who led the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety - has recommended that we focus further public funding on remediating unsafe cladding from high rise buildings. Higher rise buildings are the least likely to evacuate safely in the event of a fire spreading via external cladding.
Government intervention does not remove overall responsibility for building safety from building owners, and they should consider all routes to meet costs, protecting leaseholders where they can – for example through warranties and recovering costs from contractors for incorrect or poor work.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of people sleeping rough have a co-occurring mental health and substance use problem.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Government has not made an assessment of what proportion of people sleeping rough have a co-occurring mental health and substance use problems.
National street counts and intelligence driven estimates of people sleeping rough are conducted every year in autumn, but these do not take into account an individual’s support needs.
These figures can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2018.
However, London’s Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) data does collect self-reported information on people’s support needs. The most frequently reported support need amongst people seen rough sleeping across London in 2017/18 was mental health, with 50 per cent of those assessed during the period having a need in this area. Alcohol was the second most prevalent need, at 43 per cent, while 40 per cent of rough sleepers were assessed as having a support need relating to drugs. 15 per cent had all three support needs.
These figures can be found here: https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports.
This Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period. In its first year, the Rough Sleeping Initiative provided over 1,750 new bed spaces and 500 staff.
As part of a range of commitments in the Rough Sleeping Strategy, which was published in August 2018, the Department of Health and Social Care is running a rapid audit of health services in the 83 Rough Sleeping Initiative areas to understand levels health provision for people who sleep rough. It has also committed up to £2 million to test models of access to health services for people with co-occurring mental ill-health and substance misuse needs to understand if local services can be delivered more effectively. NHS England has committed to up to £30 million over the next five years to deliver targeted mental health services to rough sleepers.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the availability of drug and alcohol treatment services for people sleeping rough.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Government has not made an assessment of what proportion of people sleeping rough have a co-occurring mental health and substance use problems.
National street counts and intelligence driven estimates of people sleeping rough are conducted every year in autumn, but these do not take into account an individual’s support needs.
These figures can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2018.
However, London’s Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) data does collect self-reported information on people’s support needs. The most frequently reported support need amongst people seen rough sleeping across London in 2017/18 was mental health, with 50 per cent of those assessed during the period having a need in this area. Alcohol was the second most prevalent need, at 43 per cent, while 40 per cent of rough sleepers were assessed as having a support need relating to drugs. 15 per cent had all three support needs.
These figures can be found here: https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports.
This Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period. In its first year, the Rough Sleeping Initiative provided over 1,750 new bed spaces and 500 staff.
As part of a range of commitments in the Rough Sleeping Strategy, which was published in August 2018, the Department of Health and Social Care is running a rapid audit of health services in the 83 Rough Sleeping Initiative areas to understand levels health provision for people who sleep rough. It has also committed up to £2 million to test models of access to health services for people with co-occurring mental ill-health and substance misuse needs to understand if local services can be delivered more effectively. NHS England has committed to up to £30 million over the next five years to deliver targeted mental health services to rough sleepers.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to improve access to drug and alcohol treatment services for people sleeping rough.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Government has not made an assessment of what proportion of people sleeping rough have a co-occurring mental health and substance use problems.
National street counts and intelligence driven estimates of people sleeping rough are conducted every year in autumn, but these do not take into account an individual’s support needs.
These figures can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2018.
However, London’s Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) data does collect self-reported information on people’s support needs. The most frequently reported support need amongst people seen rough sleeping across London in 2017/18 was mental health, with 50 per cent of those assessed during the period having a need in this area. Alcohol was the second most prevalent need, at 43 per cent, while 40 per cent of rough sleepers were assessed as having a support need relating to drugs. 15 per cent had all three support needs.
These figures can be found here: https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports.
This Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period. In its first year, the Rough Sleeping Initiative provided over 1,750 new bed spaces and 500 staff.
As part of a range of commitments in the Rough Sleeping Strategy, which was published in August 2018, the Department of Health and Social Care is running a rapid audit of health services in the 83 Rough Sleeping Initiative areas to understand levels health provision for people who sleep rough. It has also committed up to £2 million to test models of access to health services for people with co-occurring mental ill-health and substance misuse needs to understand if local services can be delivered more effectively. NHS England has committed to up to £30 million over the next five years to deliver targeted mental health services to rough sleepers.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what combinations of cladding and insulation the Government plans to commission the Building Research Establishment to test as part of the non-ACM testing programme.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to question 217591 on 11 February.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment the Government has made on the effectiveness of the BS 8414 test on the fire performance of external cladding systems in reflecting real world scenarios.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
I refere the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to question UIN 214599 on 4 February.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will instruct the Building Research Establishment to design the BS 8414 tests on the fire performance of external cladding systems to reflect the worst-case scenario of a building fire.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Tests carried out using the BS 8414 methodology are designed using the established and recognised BS 8414 methodology. Rigs to be used in tests are constructed in line with standard industry practice to ensure compliance with Approved Document B guidance on the construction of external wall systems.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Grenfell Tower fire, if the Government will take account of common installation failures when commissioning the British Research Establishment to conduct BS 8414 tests on the fire performance of external cladding systems when testing non-ACM materials to ensure that those tests reflect worst case scenarios.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Tests carried out using the BS 8414 methodology are designed using the established and recognised BS 8414 methodology. Rigs to be used in tests are constructed in line with standard industry practice to ensure compliance with Approved Document B guidance on the construction of external wall systems.