Fire safety information regarding your social housing stock.

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Hull City Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Gareth Thomas Jones

Dear Hull City Council,

I am currently studying a BSC in Property Development at the University of Portsmouth. My course requires me to write a research paper on a specific question. The following questions have been prepared to help assess the extent to which the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 has affected fire safety in blocks of flats in the last 10 years.
As a local authority with a social housing stock you have been selected as a potential candidate to answer questions that will assist me in answering my problem.
I understand the Freedom of Information requests can be time consuming and if to time consuming they will be refused. I have written the questions below so they can easily be answered.

Before responding please read the information at the end of this email below the questions.
Responses if requested will be kept confidential and any names will be removed. If you would prefer to respond via email please send responses to [email address].

Questions:

1. How many properties do you have in your housing stock?

2. How many of these properties are located in blocks of flats?

3. How many blocks of flats do you have in your housing stock that are governed by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005?

4. How many of these blocks of flats have had a fire risk assessment conducted since the 1st of October 2006?

5. How many of these blocks of flats currently have a valid fire risk assessment?

6. If you do not have valid FRA’s on all of your blocks of flats that are bound by the FSO 2005 please can you provide a brief justification as to why this is not the case?

7. Does your fire safety policy require reviews of existing fire risk assessments? And if so how regularly and are they actually reviewed?

8. Do you currently have an on-going refurbishment programme or policy that includes fire safety upgrades in your blocks of flats?

9. In 2015-2016 what was the approximate yearly spend on repairs and maintenance, including major refurbishment schemes on your social housing stock?

10. In 2015 -2016 what was your approximate yearly spend on fire safety upgrades in communal areas of blocks of flats?

11. What fire safety improvement is your main focus?

12. In the last year how many of the following have been served by your local Fire Authority:
a. Notice of Deficiency
b. Alterations Notice
c. Enforcement Notice
d. Prohibition Notice

13. How many properties currently have a in date smoke detector installed?

14. In the last 5 years how many fires have you had in properties or communal areas of blocks of flats? How many of these have caused death or serious injury.

A review of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the impact on fire safety within tenanted purpose built blocks of flats constructed prior to the adoption of current legislation.

You are being invited to take part in a research study. Before you take part it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please take time to read the following information carefully.

Dissertation Aim

The aim of the Dissertation is to assess the extent to which the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 has affected fire safety in blocks of flats in the last 10 years.

A number of councils have been sent Freedom of Information Requests containing a number of questions that when answered will assist me with completing the aim. Approximately 87 councils will be initially sent FOI requests.

When taking part:
Please answer the questions to the best of your ability.

The disadvantages or ‘costs’ involved in taking part in the study are:
The costs associated with retrieval of the information.

The benefits furthering our understanding of the topic involved in taking part in the study are:…

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 was introduced 10 years ago, there has not been a review regarding its impact since 2009. This assessed its initial effectiveness. The study will review whether the requirements of the Act are being implemented by building owners.

Confidentiality or Anonymisation

The responses you provide if requested will be kept anonymous.

If you wish for your responses from the FOI request to be kept anonymous please email the response to [email address] and instruct that this is the case.

The results of the research study
The results of the Freedom of Information Requests will form part of a dissertation for the degree of BSc in Property Development a degree of the University of Portsmouth. A copy of the published material can be obtained from the author and the University of Portsmouth.

Who is organising the research?
I am conducting this research as a student of the University of Portsmouth through the School of Civil Engineering and Surveying in the Faculty of Technology.

Who has reviewed the study?
The Faculty of Technology Research Ethics Committee of the University of Portsmouth has approved the research.

Contact for further information
Please contact for further information:
Gareth Jones
Email: [email address]
or
Phone: 07593335901
at any time for further information.
A copy of the dissertation can be obtained from the University
Thank you for taking the time to read this important information sheet.

Yours faithfully,

Gareth Thomas Jones

Information Governance, Hull City Council

Dear Mr Jones,

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Information Request - 001946/16

 

We acknowledge receipt of your information request received on 21 November
2016 which is being processed according to the Freedom of Information Act
(2000).

 

The legislation allows us 20 working days to respond which takes us to 19
December 2016.  There are some circumstances under which this deadline may
be extended legally but we will inform you as soon as we know if these
apply.

 

 

 

Questions

 

I am currently studying a BSC in Property Development at the University of
Portsmouth. My course requires me to write a research paper on a specific
question. The following questions have been prepared to help assess the
extent to which the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 has
affected fire safety in blocks of flats in the last 10 years.

As a local authority with a social housing stock you have been selected as
a potential candidate to answer questions that will assist me in answering
my problem.

I understand the Freedom of Information requests can be time consuming and
if to time consuming they will be refused. I have written the questions
below so they can easily be answered.

 

Before responding please read the information at the end of this email
below the questions.

 

Questions:

 

1.         How many properties do you have in your housing stock?

 

2.         How many of these properties are located in blocks of flats?

 

3.         How many blocks of flats do you have in your housing stock that
are governed by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005?

 

4.         How many of these blocks of flats have had a fire risk
assessment conducted since the 1st of October 2006?

 

5.         How many of these blocks of flats currently have a valid fire
risk assessment?

 

6.         If you do not have valid FRA’s on all of your blocks of flats
that are bound by the FSO 2005 please can you provide a brief
justification as to why this is not the case?

 

7.         Does your fire safety policy require reviews of existing fire
risk assessments? And if so how regularly and are they actually reviewed?

 

8.         Do you currently have an on-going refurbishment programme or
policy that includes fire safety upgrades in your blocks of flats?

 

9.         In 2015-2016 what was the approximate yearly spend on repairs
and maintenance, including major refurbishment schemes on your social
housing stock?

 

10.       In 2015 -2016 what was your approximate yearly spend on fire
safety upgrades in communal areas of blocks of flats?

 

11.       What fire safety improvement is your main focus?

 

12.       In the last year how many of the following have been served by
your local Fire Authority:

a.         Notice of Deficiency

b.         Alterations Notice

c.         Enforcement Notice

d.         Prohibition Notice

 

13.       How many properties currently have a in date smoke detector
installed?

 

14.       In the last 5 years how many fires have you had in properties or
communal areas of blocks of flats? How many of these have caused death or
serious injury.

 

A review of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the impact
on fire safety within tenanted purpose built blocks of flats constructed
prior to the adoption of current legislation.

 

You are being invited to take part in a research study. Before you take
part it is important for you to understand why the research is being done
and what it will involve. Please take time to read the following
information carefully.

 

Dissertation Aim

 

The aim of the Dissertation is to assess the extent to which the
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 has affected fire safety in
blocks of flats in the last 10 years.

 

 

 

 

Should you wish to complain about our response in any way this must
initially be done by e-mailing [1][Hull City Council request email] or by
contacting us at The Information Governance Team, The Guildhall, Alfred
Gelder Street, Hull, HU1 2AA.

 

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review then you
may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the
government body established to enforce the legislation.

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF

 

Web site: [2]https://ico.org.uk

Report a concern: [3]https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

Email: [4][email address]

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate)

 

ICO states that any emails you choose to send to them, or that they send
to you, are not secure as email messages can be intercepted.

ICO asks that you include a contact telephone number on any emails you
send to them. 

 

The Council’s Freedom of Information Policy, which includes the charging
policy, is available on request and from the web site
[5]www.hullcc.gov.uk.  Also available is a booklet on ‘Accessing
Information from Hull City Council’ which explains how to request
information and your rights (according to the Data Protection Act 1998 and
The Freedom of Information Act 2000).

 

 

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

 

Information Governance Team

Town Clerk's Service

Hull City Council

Tel: 01482 300300

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