Current status: Answered by Neil Gray on 3 November 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the costs associated with remediating the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, what its position is on whether all future hospitals and other potentially high-risk buildings, such as schools, should only be constructed with non-combustible façade materials.
Any new schools or hospitals must comply with current building standards, which include a requirement for non-combustible cladding material at a storey height of over 11m. High risk MAC-PE cladding material is banned on buildings of all height. It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities and Health Boards to manage their estate, and we expect them to provide safe environments for all school and healthcare estate users.
With specific reference to Hospitals the NHS Scotland Firecode, Scottish Health Technical Memorandum (SHTM 81) Fire Safety in the design of healthcare premises stipulates that external wall systems, including cladding and insulation, on all hospitals with a total floor area of more than 200m2, should be constructed of products achieving European Classification A1 (non-combustible) or A2 (will not significantly contribute to fire load and fire growth).