HC Deb 08 April 1981 vol 2 cc940-1
5. Mr. Chapman

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he intends to simplify or otherwise change the building regulations in force in Scotland.

The Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. Malcolm Rifkind)

We shall publish a consolidated edition of the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations later this year which will include amendments and presentational improvements. It will provide a base for simplification of the regulations in the course of a review of the building control system in Scotland.

Mr. Chapman

I welcome and appreciate any attempt to consolidate the building procedure regulations and all the amendments, and the building standards regulations and all the amendments made under them, into one—albeit very thick—volume, but will my hon. Friend be a little more forthcoming? Will he perhaps give it as his opinion that the building regulations in Scotland could be considerably simplified without detriment to safety or health factors? Will he also meet the other relevant Ministers to see whether those regulations could be unified throughout the whole of the United Kingdom?

Mr. Rifkind

We are continually looking for ways of simplifying the regulations, consistent with the public interest. I would not say that there is an argument for uniformity for its own sake, but where there are no significant differences it is obviously sensible to have similar regulations in different parts of the United Kingdom.

Mr. Hugh D. Brown

Am I being unduly suspicious or does this question really relate to Barratt's? In the circumstances, will the Minister assure me that there will be consultations with the clients' and consumers' interests before there is any reduction in building standards?

Mr. Rifkind

I assure the hon. Gentleman that we are looking not only at the application from Barratt's but also at the representations which have been received from local authorities and other legitimate interests. As the hon. Gentleman will be aware, contrary views have been put forward as to the desirability or otherwise of reducing the present minimum space regulations in Scotland.

Sir Albert Costain

Will the Minister appreciate that, as a person who set up a factory in Scotland, giving employment in Scotland, I found it difficult to develop that factory because of the absence of standard building regulations? If the Minister wants to have more employment in Scotland in the making of building materials, he ought to standardise the building regulations in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Rifkind

Sometimes standardisation can lead to the sort of improvement to which my hon. Friend referred, but one has to take into account the fact that some of the different regulations that currently exist in Scotland are different for very good reasons. It would not necessarily follow that it would be in the interests of the people of Scotland that the regulatons should be made uniform with the rest of the United Kingdom.

Mr. William Hamilton

Is the Minister aware that Costain's built a big hospital in Glasgow, at considerable public expense, and that it fell down? Will he give a categoric assurance that Barratt's will not be allowed to build houses in Dunfermline or anywhere in Fife that will be a fire hazard?

Mr. Rifkind

The hon. Gentleman can be assured that houses built in accordance with the building standards regulations will not normally fall down. The hon. Gentleman will have to await the outcome of the consideration that we are giving at the moment to the application from Barratt's.