Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services – in the Senedd at 2:43 pm on 3 October 2018.
I've taken a real interest in the evidence that your committee has received on this and I look forward to giving my own evidence to the committee next week. What I will say is much of the evidence that committee has heard only serves to reinforce the concerns that Dame Hackitt put forward in her report—so, issues about capacity, issues about the knowledge and expertise that there is in order to enforce and review and check that the correct safety measures are in place, and so forth, and even wider issues that I know the committee has heard about in terms of how can we make sure that what is designed and what is approved is actually what's been built. That has come through, I know, strongly in the evidence you received.
The First Minister asked me to chair and bring together a new expert group in order to advise us as to how we take forward those concerns that Dame Hackitt put forward in her review. So, how do we look at the concerns? Are they relevant to Wales? We believe they are. We think that the issues that she identified are as applicable in Wales and as important in Wales as they are in England, where the review took place. But also to explore whether her suggestions as to the way forward are the right suggestions and the right way forward for Wales—so, we need to be looking, really, at developing a whole-system approach that's coherent and complementary, with clear lines of responsibility, tight standards, monitoring and enforcement, and, of course, a real voice for the residents who live in these buildings as well. So, we're working to identify priorities, and I look forward to making a fuller statement on the work of the expert group in January, which will outline then a programme of work and a direction of travel going forward. But there's no complacency whatsoever in terms of how seriously Welsh Government takes building safety and the safety of residents. It's an absolute priority for us.