Department for Communities and Local
Government
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
T 030 3444 0000
www.gov.uk/dclg
Tim
Via Email
Date:
21 November 2017
Dear Sir/Madam
Freedom of Information Act 2000 -
3491555
Thank you for your request for information which was received on 21 September
2017 and is set out in an annex to this letter. Please accept our apologies for the
delay in responding to you.
Your request has been considered under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
We can confirm that information within scope of your request is held by the
Department.
(1) Confirm that the "no buildings known" for Category 1 refers to both private
and 'public' housing.
This is correct but only for residential blocks over 18m tall.
(3) If the sum of the numbers is not the same as the 173 social housing
buildings, 89 private residential buildings and 85 that have failed and 4 that
have passed mentioned in Sajid Javid's statement on 5 September 2017,
please provide an explanation of the differences.
The latest numbers (published in the Secretary of State’s letter to the select
committee) are 274 buildings with ACM cladding, 262 of which have cladding
systems that failed the large scale test. Any differences with previous numbers are
likely to be the result of further inspections.
(2) Provide the numbers of Local Authority or Housing Association owned or
managed buildings that have each type of insulation with Category 2 ACM
cladding.
This information is exempt from disclosure under section 35(1)(a) of the FOI Act as it
relates to the formulation and development of government policy.
TEMPLATE FRAMEWORK – NOT TO BE USED FOR SUBMISSION
OF DRAFT ANSWERS
Section 35 is a qualified exemption and I have considered whether the balance of
the public interest favours our release of this material.
The Department recognises the general public interest in Building Regulations policy
at this time. We have published frequent updates on the Department’s website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/grenfell-tower
Updates specifically on the Building Safety Programme can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/building-safety-programme.
The Department intends to continue providing these updates at appropriate times
and in appropriate levels of detail.
However, we believe disclosure of the information you have requested without the
wider context is premature and would be likely to undermine any conclusions which
may emerge.
Therefore I have decided, on balance, that it is not in the public interest to disclose
this information at this time.
Complaints procedure
If you are unhappy with this response, we will review it and report back to you. (This
is called an internal review.) If you want us to do this, let us know by return email
within two months of receiving this response. You can also ask by letter addressed
to:
Department for Communities and Local Government
Knowledge and Information Access Team
1st Floor NW, Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London, SW1P 4DF
If you are unhappy with the outcome of this internal review, you can ask the
independent Information Commissioner to investigate. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at email address
xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx or use their
online form at
ico.org.uk/concerns or call them on 0303 123 1113.
Yours faithfully
DCLG FOI Team
Annex
TEMPLATE FRAMEWORK – NOT TO BE USED FOR SUBMISSION
OF DRAFT ANSWERS
On your Grenfell Tower website, https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/grenfell-
tower, you refer to a number of announcements about the results of the large-scale
tests you have conducted following the Grenfell Tower fire.
The announcements for the polyethylene core (Category 3) tests give the number of
Local Authority or Housing Association buildings that are know to have this type of
construction (47 and 90 for the two types of insulation), in addition to the total
numbers of buildings known (82 and 111 respectively).
For the mineral core (Category 1) tests, you say no buildings are know to have this
construction, and I assume that means neither private nor LA or HA have this
construction.
However, for the fire-retardent core (Category 2) you only provide the total number of
buildings known to have this construction (13, 22 and 13 for the three types of
insulation).
Would you please:
(1) Confirm that the "no buildings known" for Category 1 refers to both private and
'public' housing.
(2) Provide the numbers of Local Authority or Housing Association owned or
managed buildings that have each type of insulation with Category 2 ACM cladding.
(3) If the sum of the numbers is not the same as the 173 social housing buildings, 89
private residential buildings and 85 that have failed and 4 that have passed
mentioned in Sajid Javid's statement on 5 September 2017, please provide an
explanation of the differences.