NEWS Next phase of review begins as MPs respond


A MEETING was held in January by Dame Judith Hackitt to ‘inform the next phase’ of her independent review into building regulations and fi re safety. The interim report found that a ‘universal shift in culture’ is needed to rebuild trust ‘among residents of high-rise buildings’. Dame Judith ‘consulted widely’


in developing her interim report and ‘will continue to do so’ before making fi nal recommendations. The second phase will include targeted work in partnership with the sector and other stakeholders, including a government summit and building industry representatives, before a fi nal report in spring. Show House and FM World


both reported on the meeting to ‘inform the next phase’, which saw around 50 industry figures meeting and committing to ‘creating a new system that will work effectively and coherently’. In turn, working groups will be established to ‘develop innovative solutions’ in a series of key areas that would inform the review. These include design, construction and refurbishment, which would look at what ‘industry and regulators need to do to fully embed building safety during the design and construction phase’. Another is for occupation and maintenance, in order to identify what building owners, landlords and regulators ‘need to do differently to ensure that building safety is prioritised when a building is occupied and throughout its life cycle’.


Next in line was products


and determining how testing marketing regimes can be improved, alongside competency, which will establish the way in which ‘competency requirements for key individuals involved in building and managing complex and high-risk buildings should change’. The penultimate working group was residents’ voices, for determining the ‘best way’ to give residents a ‘clear quick and effective statutory route for raising concerns on fi re safety’. Finally, the last group will focus


on regulation and guidance, to resolve whether ‘central government ownership of technical guidance is the most appropriate model for complex and high- risk buildings’. Dame Judith stated: ‘I have


been greatly encouraged by the wide ranging support which my Interim Report received. I can now say with confi dence that there is widespread agreement that the current system of regulation for high-rise and complex buildings is broken and that we need a radical overhaul and a change in culture. I was greatly encouraged by the


Fire extinguishers recalled


MANUFACTURER KIDDE is recalling hundreds of thousands of fire extinguishers across the UK ‘over fears they can fail to activate’. Lancashire Telegraph reported


on the recall, which is affecting approximately 169,000 push button extinguishers sold in the UK between 1995 and 2006, in addition to 700 plastic handle extinguishers sold between 2011 and 2012. The recall has come


about ‘over fears they may fail to activate in an emergency’. Kidde said it was ‘not aware’ of any UK or EU incidents that have involved the affected products as yet. However, in the USA and


Canada, Kidde has received ‘approximately 391 reports’ of either ‘limited or failed activation or nozzle detachment’, with the Chartered Trading Standards


Institute commenting: ‘Affected fire extinguishers can become clogged or require excessive force to discharge and can fail to activate during a fire emergency. In addition, in some models, the nozzle may detach with enough force to pose an impact hazard.’ Those affected should visit www.


kiddesafetyeuroperecall.com or call 0800 088 5513


www.frmjournal.com MARCH 2018 7


positive tone at the summit and the recognition of the common challenge. ‘We now need to agree both


the “what” and the “how” of delivering the transformational change which is needed. Today we have invited people from a wide range of organisations to join with us not just in agreeing the way forward but in making it happen.’ However, after this the chair of the Communities and Local Government Committee wrote to Dame Judith ‘outlining concerns’, 24 Housing reporting that MPs on the committee ‘fear post-Grenfell fire safety concerns’ have been ‘dismissed’, with chair Clive Betts writing to Dame Judith ‘following her response to previous issues raised’. His letter states that the MPs were ‘disappointed’ with aspects of her reply, and questions why concerns have been ‘so quickly dismissed’, calling for her to ‘reconsider her view that the review should not examine the current regime for testing domestic electrical appliances’. It also urges her to ‘undertake


an examination of Part P’ of the regulations, and notes the committee’s ‘previous concerns’ that the review’s fi nal report ‘might focus solely on a risk-based rather than prescriptive approach to building regulation’. The letter stresses that it ‘cannot be right’ to continue to ‘permit the use of combustible materials’, and that ‘some form of prescription’ would ‘seem absolutely necessary’


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