To ask the Minister of Finance what work his Department is doing to ensure that all existing buildings over 11 metres in height are fire safe.

My Department has policy and legislative responsibility for Building Regulations which apply only when a building is newly erected, altered, extended or provided with a service or fitting, or when there is a material change of use of a building.

My Department consulted on proposals to introduce an effective ban on the use of combustible materials forming the external walls on certain higher risk ‘relevant buildings’ with a storey over 18m in height, so that only non-combustible materials can be used. The consultation asked consultees for views on the threshold height for the ban, including at 11m. Officials have analysed the consultation responses and a summary is available on the Department’s website.

The Department is currently consulting with the local Building Regulations Advisory Committee (NIBRAC) and its Technical-subcommittee for Part E ‘Fire safety’ of the Building Regulations and will bring forward final proposals, for my consideration, in the near future.

Any effective ban implemented by my Department through building regulations along with planned future proposals to address other building fire safety matters, such as provision of Automatic Fire Suppressions Systems such as sprinklers, provision of fire safety information and more, would apply to existing buildings only in the circumstances outlined above.

The Executive has agreed that citizens here are afforded the same level of fire safety in all buildings, as in other devolved administrations. The Head of the Civil Service will chair a Cross-Departmental Group to allocate policy responsibility for a range of enhanced measures to improve fire safety in buildings.

It will be a matter for this group to decide the appropriate action and funding to remove unsafe cladding in existing buildings here.

The predominant Fire Safety legislation governing the ways in which employers and people in control of premises manage fire safety in the vast majority of existing non-domestic buildings is the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 and accompanying Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010. Responsibility for this legislation lies with the Department of Health and it is enforced by the Fire and Rescue Service.