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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps his Department is taking to encourage the retro-fitting of sprinklers in housing developments.

The Government has been clear that building owners must ensure that their buildings are safe. We are consulting on proposals to introduce a safety case approach for multi-occupied residential buildings of 18 metres or more. A safety case approach will require that the person responsible for the building will need to demonstrate to a regulator that they understand and are managing the fire and structural risks in their building adequately. Installing a sprinkler system may be one way of managing fire risks.

We also specifically asked for views on the provision of sprinklers in new buildings when we undertook our recent call for evidence ahead of a technical review of the Building Regulations’ fire safety guidance. The call for evidence closed on 15 March and we are currently analysing the responses.