Committee quizzes minister on response to construction products testing review

On 17 January 2024, a Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities Committee saw the Minister of State Housing, Planning, and Building Safety at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) Lee Rowley address some of the ongoing developments in fire safety legislation.

The minister was particularly asked about his views on the April 2023 report, ‘Testing for a Safer Future: An Independent Review of the Construction Products Testing Regime’, which had been compiled by Paul Morrell OBE and Anneliese Day KC.

Back in December 2023, the FPA reported that both Morrell and Day had expressed their concerns over the limited response from the government about the report’s findings and any legislative actions that might emerge. During an evidence session with the same committee on 27 November, Paul had warned: “It is a shame that in the absence of enforcement and lack of clarity about the requirements, you get some ethical drift in behaviour in the industry and some of that has gone beyond drifting into crashing. However, that is in part a consequence of not enforcing.”

The full transcript of that evidence session from 27 November can be found here.

In a separate House of Commons meeting that took place on 17 January, MP Rowley confirmed that a government response would be issued “soon”, noting the “complexity and detail” of the document was taking time to go through.

Joined by the Director of Regulatory Reform for Safer Greener Buildings at DLUHC, Chandru Dissanayeke, who has specific responsibility for construction products, the Minister said:

I really welcome what Anneliese Day and Paul Morrell did. I think it is a very substantive document, the sheer length of it, the sheer detail of it. And I know that they have talked about it in detail. It’s a huge endeavour and I’m very grateful for them. That necessarily, because of the level of detail, takes time to work through. I recognise the interest and I recognise the importance of moving as quickly as possible on this.

I want to give you my commitment and the Secretary of State’s commitment that we are committed to reforming this area. We recognise that you and others are keen to see what is coming out of government as soon as possible. I can’t give you a date today. We are literally in the middle of working through exactly what we are going to say… We are literally working through how we are going to make this public statement, but I am not in a position to talk about what that public statement is just yet,” the Minister said.  

He added, however, that he could not confirm there would be a single full response to the report outlining the government’s acceptance or rejection of Morrell/Day’s recommendations, but instead, a set of next steps and ideas that would lead to further discussions by relevant industry parties. He reiterated the need for a response that was both “proportionate” and “workable”.

Chandru added: “Our intention is that as we develop the announcement as the minister has described, our intention is to test that with them and engage with them (Morrell and Day) more as that develops.”

The report identifies several weaknesses within the current regime, and the intention is to address those weaknesses,” he said.  

Committee members continued to question both the Minister and Chandru about the report’s recommendations along with other urgent fire safety concerns, touching on the general safety requirements for safety critical products, fire door regulations, whether new stringent fire safety standards would be applied retrospectively, product markings, and ongoing leaseholder concerns over assurances about fire safety remediation at unsafe high-rises.

You can watch the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee meeting here.