Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he was made aware of the presence of flammable cladding on buildings in the Defence Estate.

The Grenfell Tower fire occurred on 14 June 2017. In response to concerns about building cladding and following advice from MHCLG, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) surveyed the defence estate to establish if any MOD-owned sleeping accommodation blocks over 18m in height were clad with Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) during July-August 2017. This found that MOD had no buildings that met the criteria or that were clad with ACM.

In December 2018, the MHCLG issued an updated Advice Note which changed and extended the requirement, recommending that all buildings with any external cladding at a height in excess of 18m and containing residential accommodation should be assessed to ascertain the type of cladding used.

All relevant buildings on the Defence Estate were re-surveyed (surveys completed in July 2019), which identified 28 buildings (subsequently reduced to 27 buildings) which had an external wall system that contains combustible components and required further investigation as there was no evidence to confirm a BR135 classification that was required under MHCLG Advice Note 14 to determine that the external wall system is safe.

As part of this process MOD Officials were first made aware that one Single Living Accommodation (SLA) block at HMS Nelson was not compliant with MHCLG guidance on cladding in July 2019. A Ministerial Submission was sent to all Defence Ministers, including the then Secretary of State for Defence on 18 July 2019, making them aware that one SLA block at HMS Nelson was not compliant with MHCLG guidance on cladding.

In November 2019, Defence Fire and Rescue (DFR), the Defence Fire Safety Regulator (DFSR) and Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) agreed that the 28 buildings identified should have remediation work including removal of cladding, and letters notifying the risk and need for removal were sent to the relevant Heads of Establishments in December 2019. DFR provided advice on how to operate the buildings to enable them to be safe to occupy. DFR, DFSR and DIO agreed that occupation of the buildings could continue until the appropriate measures were implemented subject to maintaining and adhering to the conditions within the buildings’ Fire Risk Assessments.

Subsequent advice from external Fire Engineering Specialists has since advised that the buildings and cladding should be re-assessed to determine if the cladding needs to be removed.

As per consolidated advice issued by MHCLG in Jan 2020, all buildings containing sleeping accommodation (at any height) with external cladding are also being assessed.