The Department welcomes the London Fire Brigade's report into the causes of the New Providence Wharf fire and has noted the content.

Electrical equipment is required to meet the health and safety requirements under the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations before it can be placed on the market. To meet these requirements many businesses will follow voluntary designated standards.

In response to the report, the Office for Product Safety and Standards has conducted an initial review of existing designated standards relevant to timer switches. This review has established that there are already standards in place which although not specifically for timer switches in consumer units, are broadly comparable with the standards for components intended for use in consumer units.

When a new consumer unit is installed, electrical regulations require this to be a metal consumer unit or a plastic consumer unit in a non-combustible enclosure. We will keep these requirements under review through our work with the industry committee responsible for development of BS7671, the standard used to show compliance with electrical safety regulations.

The Department welcomes the London Fire Brigade's report into the causes of the New Providence Wharf fire and has noted the content.

Electrical equipment is required to meet the health and safety requirements under the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations before it can be placed on the market. To meet these requirements many businesses will follow voluntary designated standards.

In response to the report, the Office for Product Safety and Standards has conducted an initial review of existing designated standards relevant to timer switches. This review has established that there are already standards in place which although not specifically for timer switches in consumer units, are broadly comparable with the standards for components intended for use in consumer units.

When a new consumer unit is installed, electrical regulations require this to be a metal consumer unit or a plastic consumer unit in a non-combustible enclosure. We will keep these requirements under review through our work with the industry committee responsible for development of BS7671, the standard used to show compliance with electrical safety regulations.

The January 2020 Advice for Building Owners of Multi-storey, Multi-occupied Residential Buildings, was written for building owners to ensure the safety of their buildings. It was not designed to be used for valuation purposes. The EWS1 process was designed by RICS to address lender concerns about cladding in high-rise residential buildings, but industry has applied it more widely than it was intended. Government does not support a blanket use of EWS1. The Building Safety Minister has met with mortgage lenders seeking their support to a more proportionate approach to valuation of multi storey, multi occupied residential buildings.

The Department cannot provide information regarding individual buildings. Building safety is the responsibility of the building owner, and we expect remedial works to progress at pace. Remediation works to remove and replace unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding systems have either completed or started on over 70 per cent of all identified high rise residential buildings. We have made clear that we expect the rest to have started work on site before the end of the year and for all to have completed by the end of 2021.

The Government has recognised that finance can be a barrier to remediation and has made significant funds available to speed up the remediation of buildings while protecting leaseholders from significant costs. For the remediation of unsafe non-ACM cladding we have made £1 billion available to fund the removal of unsafe non-ACM cladding in 2020/21. This is in addition to the £600 million made available already to ensure the remediation of unsafe ACM cladding. Government funding is not and should not be the only source of funds and for over half of private residential buildings with ACM claddings, the ACM remediation is being funded from other sources without falling to leaseholders to pay.