Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what criteria a company must meet in order to be included on the Homes England Fire Risk Assessor Panel and authorised to carry out FRAEWs for buildings in the Cladding Safety Scheme.

To join the Fire Risk Assessor Panel firms must sign a participation agreement which sets out the terms for the panel and eligibility criteria. Along with agreeing to follow Homes England processes set out in the scheme guidance and use the correct scheme documents, firms must have:

• Relevant professional qualification to undertake fire risk appraisals as per PAS 9980 guidance
• Access to chartered engineers to perform complex assessments when needed
• ISO 9001 approach to quality control
• Professional Indemnity Insurance

Membership is renewed annually with firms having to provide evidence of their PII insurance and self-certification of qualifications and experience of firm assessors. The use of PAS 9980 and proportionality is assured by sample audit.

Since the scheme went live, four firms have left the panel through their own accord. Two pulled out due to resourcing issues and their inability to commit to meeting service level agreements and two others left due to them not receiving any business from being on the panel.

To date, Homes England have not had to remove any firms due to performance however Homes England can exercise this option should they need to.