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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reasons his Department has not issued a call for samples of building materials used in (a) external wall materials and (b) insulation of high rise buildings as part of the recent data collection exercise on external wall systems in high-rise residential buildings.

The Department’s data collection exercise is aimed at enabling the government to build a picture of external wall systems in use on high rise residential buildings. This exercise will collect data on residential buildings 18 metres and over covering private and social buildings, student accommodation and hotels. There are currently no plans to call for samples of building material or insulation as part of the data gathering exercise.

However, as part of the Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) screening program funded by the government, the Building Research Establishment has been requested to catalogue samples which are identified as non-ACM materials as detailed in the response to Question UIN 234718 on 27 March 2019.