Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of high rise buildings have sprinklers installed.

Under The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, a designated Responsible Person has an obligation to ensure that existing residential buildings have appropriate fire safety measures. Retrofitting sprinklers may, but might not always, be the right option and other fire safety measures could be taken that may be appropriate for an individual building. When new building work is undertaken, the Building Regulations set out the levels of safety and performance that is required and are supported by statutory guidance in Approved Documents. The Government amended Approved Document B Fire Safety in May 2020, reducing the trigger height for provision of sprinklers in new tall buildings from 30m to 11m.

The Government does not hold information on how many and what proportion of high rise buildings have sprinklers installed. For occupied higher-risk buildings falling under Part 4 of the Building Safety Act 2022, accountable persons are required as part of the Key Building Information to provide the Building Safety Regulator with a list of all fire and smoke control equipment within the higher-risk building. This includes whether there are sprinklers in the building. The Building Safety Regulator is planning to publish the Key Building Information later this year.