Pulse.Assent

The BIIGC is a consultative forum established by Strand Three of the Belfast Agreement with the aim of bringing ‘together the British and Irish Governments to promote bilateral co-operation on all matters of mutual interest within the competence of both governments’.

The BIIGC is not an executive body and as the Belfast Agreement states explicitly, “there will be no derogation from the sovereignty of either government”.

As the BIIGC is ‘concerned with non-devolved Northern Ireland matters’, the focus of the meeting will be on East-West issues. It will take place in London and be chaired by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in attendance.

The long awaited Home Office Biometrics Strategy published today is to be welcomed as the basis for a more informed public debate on the future use of biometrics by the Home Office and its partners.

The strategy lays out the current uses of biometric data and the development of new multi-user data platforms. Unfortunately the strategy says little about what future plans the Home Office has for the use of biometrics and the sharing of biometric data. A debate is needed given the rapid improvements in biometric matching technologies and the increasing ability to hold and analyse large biometric databases.

While the use of biometric data may well be in the public interest for law enforcement purposes and to support other government functions the public benefit must be balanced against loss of privacy. Biometric data is especially sensitive because it is most intrusive of our individual privacy and for that reason who decides the balance is as important as what is decided. Legislation carries the legitimacy that Parliament decides that crucial question.

It is disappointing that the Home Office document is not forward looking as one would expect from a strategy. In particular it does not propose legislation to provide rules for the use and oversight of new biometrics, including facial images.

This is in contrast to Scotland where such legislation has been proposed. Given that new biometrics are being rapidly deployed or trialled this failure to set out more definitively what the future landscape will look like in terms of the use and governance of biometrics appears short sighted at best.

What the strategy does propose is an oversight and advisory board to make recommendations about governance just short of legislation. If that results in the development of a set of principles to inform future legislation then it is also welcome. However, the advisory board is mainly described as concerned with the use of facial images by the police.

What is actually required is a governance framework that will cover all future biometrics rather than a series of ad hoc responses to problems as they emerge. I hope that the Home Office will re-consider and clearly extend the advisory board’s remit to properly consider all future biometrics and will name the board accordingly.

A package of measures to drive forward swifter action by building owners to remove potentially unsafe cladding on private sector high-rise residential buildings was announced today (28 June 2018) by Secretary of State for Communities, Rt. Hon James Brokenshire MP.

Since the Grenfell Tower tragedy, local authorities have been working hard to identify affected buildings in their areas and have carried out the large-scale, complex task of assessing more than 6,000 buildings.

Monthly data published today show that 297 private sector high-rise residential buildings have unsafe cladding – with a small additional number expected to be confirmed.

Building owners are responsible for ensuring the safety of their buildings and their residents, and government and councils will continue to monitor and hold them to account where they have unsafe cladding systems.

Local fire and rescue services have been informed about all of these buildings to ensure appropriate interim measures are in place so residents are safe now.

Ministers have been clear that building owners are responsible for making buildings safe and local authorities have also started enforcement action in all but a handful of cases to compel them to take action.

Whilst remediation work has begun on 21 of these buildings, of which 4 have been completed, the government is determined to accelerate the pace of this work and has announced a number of steps to progress this work:

• A new taskforce which will oversee a national programme of remediation in the private sector and ensure plans are in place for every single building affected. The taskforce will be chaired by ministers and membership will include Local Government Association (LGA), National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), London Councils, local authorities who have experienced the largest degree of impact and industry representatives.
• A new inspection team, backed by £1 million government funding, consisting of experts from environmental health, building control and fire inspection who will provide support to individual councils boosting their capacity and expertise to undertake enforcement action and ensure building owners take the necessary action and speed up the remediation process.
• A follow-up industry roundtable next month so representatives can present their proposals on solutions to remove unsafe cladding from high-rise buildings without passing on the costs to leaseholders. In the meantime, MHCLG will continue to explore other routes for protecting leaseholders, such as supporting local authorities to take more targeted action to identify and remediate affected buildings and recovering costs from those responsible for ensuring the safety of buildings; and supporting leaseholder enfranchisement.
• Letters will be sent to all relevant private sector building owners to remind them of their responsibility to make their buildings safe.

Secretary of State for Communities, Rt. Hon James Brokenshire MP said:

The safety of residents is my main priority and fire and rescue services are working with building owners to ensure residents are safe now. But I want to see swifter progress in removing unsafe cladding which is why I have announced further action to support councils as they work with owners of high-rise blocks.

I have been clear that leaseholders should be protected from unfair costs and we expect the industry to do the right thing. If they don’t, I will continue to explore other routes and I am not ruling anything out.

Further information

You can find the latest monthly data release on the building safety programme.

Secretary of State for Communities, Rt. Hon James Brokenshire MP, provided an update to Parliament.

To identify affected buildings, the government has already provided £1.3 million to the authorities most affected. With this funding they were able to assess more than 6,000 high-rise private sector buildings.