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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the extent of compliance with Part M of the building regulations for (a) dwellings and (b) non-dwellings (i) nationally and (ii) in each local authority area.

My Department has made no recent assessment of compliance with Part M of the Building Regulations. Compliance checking is undertaken by local authorities or private sector Approved Inspectors. However, the English Housing Survey includes information on the proportion of homes built with accessible features. It shows how “visitability” is much higher in homes built from 2001 onwards (when Part M began to have an impact) compared to those built before 2001. Also, my department has commissioned research into the effectiveness of the statutory guidance, which supports the requirements of Part M for new domestic buildings.