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We previously talked about the ministerial groups. There were discussions with other bodies about the SBA process, and we are quite confident about it.

There are ministerial groups covering more extensive building safety. The issue has been raised in those groups, so an eye is being kept on it as things develop. For example, the RAAC situation kind of came out of the blue for everybody a number of months ago, and we had to deal with that at that point. Those ministerial groups look at the more extensive building safety regime in Scotland.

There is always a question whether we have enough qualified professionals, and there are discussions about work with colleges and universities with regard to what is required. However, we are comfortable with what we have in place. It is not just about considering where we are now; it is also about what future demand is likely to be here and in the rest of the UK.

I am happy to come back to you on that, convener.

You are right. As you know, some buildings might have 200 or 300 flats. Some flats are rented out by people who might not come back to them for a number of years. If work needs to be carried out, we must ensure that that is carried out.

As the committee will probably have seen, in Edinburgh, we tend to have a mix of properties. I know that, in Glasgow, which I have visited, people rent out properties. There are therefore various ownership models. We must ensure that we take account of that. Factors have told us that they have issues on communicating with people who rent out their buildings, for example. If work needs to be carried out, going through the tenant might be one way of resolving that, but actually getting to the people who own the buildings is a different matter. We must be aware of that broader communication aspect. Again, that is where the communication protocol and how we deal with such matters are important.

There are therefore points for us to take away on those issues. I will be happy to come back on any thoughts or any feedback that the committee might have.

I am happy to write to the committee if there is any progress on that, but we continue to push the issue on a regular basis.

In speaking to residents, that issue has come up quite a bit. It was raised at a meeting that I had just last week with residents of a number of developments. A key point is that there has been a large increase in the number of people in the directorate who are working in the cladding area. I know that we need to do a bit more work in that area, and we are looking at communication protocols.

Communication is slightly different for each building, each developer and each factor. There has to be a personalised approach, but communication needs to get better. As I said, the directorate has grown over the past number of months as the bill has developed and as we have done more work in this area. I acknowledge that we need to do more on communication, but it needs to be personalised to each building.

Even if there is nothing in particular to say, we should tell residents that there is nothing to say but that work is being carried out. The fact that there has been a vacuum is what people are concerned about. We have picked up on that in the pilot project. The issue has been raised by residents. I acknowledge that more could have been done, but we are working on that just now.

Homes for Scotland has arranged round-table discussions and we have also met individual developers. We tend to meet a mix of managing directors, finance directors and the technical people who need to be in the room. We also have technical people in the room when policy is discussed at round tables and at the individual discussions, so things are quite well covered.

That has been the main issue in the discussions with Homes for Scotland and with individual developers. I will bring in officials to talk about the technical discussions that they have had.

When I came into this role, I had a number of key objectives, one of which was to get a developer commitment letter to ensure that they signed up to what we were trying to do. The issue was raised when I spoke to individual developers at that stage, and we got the letter signed; the next stage was to move towards the long-form contract, which was when the SBA issue came up.

When the SBA process was raised, I asked officials to set up a task and finish group, which has been running for a number of months now, to work on the exact specifications. We did that, and Homes for Scotland was present at that meeting; we then had individual and round-table discussions. In fact, there have been a number of round tables as we have worked on that.

As the tenure system is slightly different in Scotland, there was a Scottish advice note, and we talked about moving towards a publicly available specification and the technical specifications to go along with that. We also had individual discussions with developers.

The SBA will pick up different things in different buildings, depending on where the developers are. We have tried to work very closely with developers, but we need to have technical specifications, both for the safety of residents and so that we are satisfied. That is incredibly important.

The key thing for me was to have individual discussions and to listen. I visited a number of buildings, so that I was not just hearing from developers but going out and telling people what we were looking at, what we were doing and what clarity we needed. That has been the priority all the way through and we are not far away from getting agreement with all the developers. It has probably slowed down progress, but it is important that we, and the developers, are happy with the specifications. Most important, even though they might not know the technical specifications, residents must believe in us and in the developers. That has been a focus for me all the way through, and it will continue to be a focus in our discussions with individual developers.

I will bring in Rachel Sunderland or Kate Hall to talk about where we are now. I know that really good progress has been made on that and that we will soon have that agreement and be able to move forward. It is important to have that in place. Rachel might want to say a little more about that.

Again, convener, I am happy to write back to the committee when we reach agreement, to keep you up to date on that.

I will bring in officials in a wee second. Generally speaking, the cladding safety issue is the most important thing. When it comes to individual buildings, I know from the first week in the job that there were specific concerns about one building—I will not name it—on which tough decisions had to be made. Within a day or two, there were issues that were causing us real concern. There were a couple of buildings like that, for which decisions had to be made in order to negate risks quickly.

On the binary—pass or fail—scoring, our getting down to the level of detail that we are talking about and having agreement in place on the specification are really important. In relation to some of the evidence, some people might not be aware of our discussions with developers about what that looks like. That is the level of detail that we are down to, because this is not just about the specifications going forward, but about where we are just now.

Discussions are always taking place with developers about individual buildings that are going through the system, so that aspect is always looked at.

Kate Hall or Rachel Sunderland might want to talk about some of the technical discussions that have been had. The questions that are always at the forefront of our minds are these: as work is carried out or as we move towards work being carried out, is the building safe and what is the standard?

If there are specific risks, as there have been in some buildings, we have taken action to negate those risks. In my statement, I mentioned giving us the powers to do that: at the moment, we must negotiate with developers and local authorities to allow us to take that action. When the bill is passed, we will be able to carry out immediate work, if that is required.

We have had issues in relation to negotiating with other stakeholders about negating some of the immediate risk. As I said, I have seen a couple of examples of that.

I will bring in Kate Hall to comment on the tolerable standard and what has been fed back. As I said, the issue is at the forefront of our minds, always.

Yes. In the chats that I have had with residents, they have said that about communication. Even if there is nothing to say in the next six months, they should at least get an update after three months that says, “We’re working on this, and we expect to get back to you in three months.” They simply want some regular communication. There is also a role for factors and developers to play as part of that process.

Developing a communication protocol is really important. When the directorate was set up, the focus was on looking at the technical issues and working with developers and so on. There are now more staff in the directorate, and communication will be incredibly important as we step up the pace.