Current status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 22 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how the Single Building Assessment (SBA) to facilitate the delivery of the Cladding Remediation Programme defines the term (a) development, (b) building and (c) stairs, and whether this definition is applied consistently across all cladding-related policies and reporting.
The Single Building Assessment (SBA) is a comprehensive evaluation designed to assess fire safety risks associated with external wall systems in Scottish buildings. However, specific definitions for the terms (a) development, (b) building, and (c) stairs within the context of the SBA are not explicitly detailed in the definitions of the Housing Cladding Remediation (Scotland) Act 2025.
Development: The term development is not specifically defined within the SBA. Generally, in Scottish planning context, development refers to the carrying out of building, engineering, mining, or other operations in, on, over, or under land, or the making of any material change in the use of any buildings or other land.
Building: While the SBA specification does not provide a specific definition of building, it refers to in-scope buildings as those eligible for assessment under the programme.
The Cladding Remediation Programme aims to address risks in domestic multi-residential buildings that meet the following criteria:
Stairs: The term stairs is not explicitly defined in the SBA-related documents. In general construction terminology, stairs refer to a set of steps leading from one floor of a building to another.