Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Waking Watch Relief Fund covering the cost of alarms installed after 17 December 2020.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We estimated that the £30 million Waking Watch Relief Fund will pay for the installation of alarms in between 300 to 460 buildings and will benefit between 17,400 and 26,680 leaseholders. These estimates are based on fire alarm costs data provided by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) with additional modelling to account for the average number of dwellings in buildings over 18 metres. These are published in the Waking Watch costs data release which is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-safety-programme-waking-watch-costs . The Fund is not intended as a substitute for swift remediation of unsafe cladding for which the Government is providing £5 billion financial support.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of high-rise residential buildings that will benefit from the Waking Watch Relief Fund.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We estimated that the £30 million Waking Watch Relief Fund will pay for the installation of alarms in between 300 to 460 buildings and will benefit between 17,400 and 26,680 leaseholders. These estimates are based on fire alarm costs data provided by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) with additional modelling to account for the average number of dwellings in buildings over 18 metres. These are published in the Waking Watch costs data release which is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-safety-programme-waking-watch-costs . The Fund is not intended as a substitute for swift remediation of unsafe cladding for which the Government is providing £5 billion financial support.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of a specific fund for waking watchers for unsafe high-rise residential buildings with a complex structural integrity which potentially require both waking watchers and alarms.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has been clear in its guidance published on 1 October 2020 that, where a building moves to a simultaneous evacuation fire safety strategy, building owners should move to install common fire alarm systems as quickly as possible to reduce or remove dependence on waking watches. The Waking Watch Relief Fund follows the NFCC guidance that alarms are safer and more cost effective. The specification of suitable alarm systems is set out in the guidance for the Fund which also follows NFCC advice. Alarms must meet that specification in order to be funded or if not give evidence as to why from the Fire and Rescue Service.
The Fund is specifically designed to remove the need for waking watch only. When waking watch is replaced with a common fire alarm system the NFCC guidance states that there may still be a need for a 24-hour presence of one or more trained persons to undertake the role of evacuation management – which is a different requirement and will depend on the individual circumstances of a particular building. We anticipate that in most circumstances the evacuation management role is not required, or it may require a reduced number of staff from a full waking watch. However, neither a waking watch or an alarm system is an adequate substitute for the swift remedial action which is why the Government is providing over £5 billion in grant funding for the remediation of unsafe cladding systems.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure fire alarms are an sufficient replacement for waking watchers in all qualifying buildings for the Waking Watch Relief Fund.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has been clear in its guidance published on 1 October 2020 that, where a building moves to a simultaneous evacuation fire safety strategy, building owners should move to install common fire alarm systems as quickly as possible to reduce or remove dependence on waking watches. The Waking Watch Relief Fund follows the NFCC guidance that alarms are safer and more cost effective. The specification of suitable alarm systems is set out in the guidance for the Fund which also follows NFCC advice. Alarms must meet that specification in order to be funded or if not give evidence as to why from the Fire and Rescue Service.
The Fund is specifically designed to remove the need for waking watch only. When waking watch is replaced with a common fire alarm system the NFCC guidance states that there may still be a need for a 24-hour presence of one or more trained persons to undertake the role of evacuation management – which is a different requirement and will depend on the individual circumstances of a particular building. We anticipate that in most circumstances the evacuation management role is not required, or it may require a reduced number of staff from a full waking watch. However, neither a waking watch or an alarm system is an adequate substitute for the swift remedial action which is why the Government is providing over £5 billion in grant funding for the remediation of unsafe cladding systems.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to backdate access to the Waking Watch Fund for buildings that have installed alarms pre-dating the 17 December 2020.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Waking Watch Relief Fund is designed to incentivise buildings to install a common alarm system and to reduce the dependency on Waking Watch. As such the Fund does not cover the retrospective costs of alarms installed before the Fund was announced on 17 December 2020.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will backdate applications to the Waking Watch Fund for buildings that had installed alarms before 17 December 2020.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Waking Watch Relief Fund is designed to incentivise buildings to install a common alarm system and to reduce the dependency on Waking Watch. As such the Fund does not cover the retrospective costs of alarms installed before the Fund was announced on 17 December 2020.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many Waking Watch Relief Fund applications have been successful to date.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Waking Watch Relief Fund opened for applications for buildings in England, except private sector buildings in London, on 31 January 2021 and closed on 14 March. Applications received are currently being processed. For private sector buildings in London the Fund opened on 18 March 2021 and remains open until 30 April. We will publish complete data on the Waking Watch Relief Fund, including the number of applications.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many Waking Watch Relief Fund applications his Department has received to date.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Waking Watch Relief Fund opened for applications for buildings in England, except private sector buildings in London, on 31 January 2021 and closed on 14 March. Applications received are currently being processed. For private sector buildings in London the Fund opened on 18 March 2021 and remains open until 30 April. We will publish complete data on the Waking Watch Relief Fund, including the number of applications.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment the Government has made of the effectiveness of new fire extinguishing technologies, such as internal ventilation systems, to delay or prevent fires from spreading.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government continues to assess new and emerging fire protection technologies through both ongoing industry engagement and through participation in the development of standards (e.g. the British Standards Institution committee FSH/18 - fixed fire-fighting systems).
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has made in response to the potential future identification of residential buildings being found not to be fire safe.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Through the Building Safety Bill, the Fire Safety Bill and changes to the Fire Safety Order, we are proposing a package of legislative changes that are going to ensure the problems identified with the current building and fire safety regime are rectified and residents are safe.
To focus the regime on risk, the intention is the scope of the new building safety regime will start with residential buildings with rates of fire which are considerably higher: apartment blocks over 18m. The new building regime is designed to be flexible, and to follow a proportionate, risk-based approach that keeps the scope of the regime under review by the new building safety regulator.
The building safety regulator will also have wide responsibilities for overseeing the performance of building control bodies and the safety of all buildings including identifying patterns of regulatory failure and making recommendations for improving standards. This will drive up continuous improvement in the performance of all buildings to ensure the safety of occupants.
We are working with Home Office to ensure the new regime aligns with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, known as the Fire Safety Order (FSO), which covers fire safety in business or other non-domestic premises including where vulnerable people live and sleep. We will ensure that the two regimes work cohesively as the scope of the regulator expands.