 Dw i'r sgolwgau eraill i gilyddio dylunio i ddadu i learnydd yng Ngheilwyr ar gyfer mae ein ch restrictions a gwneud hynny wedi ein ysgolwyr yn unrhyw fod o bach yn gyffredinol, tra llawn am maen nhw, a fyddwn i'n byw'r cysylltiadau i enthraeoniannol, ond mwy o'r teimlo, gennym ni'n golygu bod allai'r lleig Feed Newpublic buildings i'r konflottag i gychwyn i ffant a'r Ffent i Grenfell Tower buckfffriddor. The Scottish Government took immediate action following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower to ensure the safety of residents living in tower blocks. The Minister for Housing and Local Government raised this issue with local authorities on Thursday last week and wrote to them later the same day to seek information on high-rise domestic buildings in their area, whether any of remedial works, including overcladding, had been undertaken and, if so, the material and construction techniques used. I expect to have this information collated today, indeed, I have some of that information, but if the cladding system is of the type understood to have been used at Grenfell, it is unlikely to meet current Scottish building regulation guidance. Furthermore, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are working with local authorities and housing associations to ensure the safety of residents in high-rises. Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has already prioritised requests for home fire safety visits from residents of high-rise flats. The service has also confirmed that its quarterly visits of all high-rise domestic buildings are up-to-date, and those visits are conducted to help familiarise local fire crews with the firefighting facilities, access and the layout of such buildings. New buildings are covered by the Scottish building regulations that include the requirement from 2005 to fit automatic fire suppression systems, otherwise known as sprinklers, to residential care facilities, enclosed shopping centres and high-risk areas within hospitals, and from 2010 they are in new schools. The ministerial working group has just completed its first meeting, and we have undertaken to examine what proactive preventative measures we can take to ensure that our buildings are safe as possible and safe as practical. The initial focus of the working group will be on high-rise domestic buildings. The group will also consider other buildings, such as schools and hospitals, using a risk-based approach informed by emerging evidence and intelligence from the UK Government and its own local authorities. Jackie Baillie I thank the cabinet secretary for her response. I very much welcome the Government's announcement both of a review but also of the action that has been taken so far, in particular looking at widening the scope of the review to ensure that schools and other public buildings are included. The ministerial will be aware that West Dunbarnshire Council has not done a full fire risk inspection on their high-rise blocks for seven years, while other local authorities do that on an annual basis. Given that there is an inconsistent approach across Scotland, what is the frequency that the cabinet secretary would expect local authorities to undertake those inspections, and will she issue national guidance to that effect? The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Constitution Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I appreciate the question from the member. While fire regulations and building standards are indeed matters for local authorities, one of the reasons that we have established the ministerial working group is so that we can cast a fair and a critical eye over not just fire safety regulations and building standards but all regulations or regulatory frameworks as appropriate. While in Scotland we compare well in terms of fire safety standards and building regulations, we do not, for one minute, want to be complacent. We want to take a fresh look at all of this, be led by the evidence and, of course, we will be keeping Parliament duly informed each and every step of the way. While I am not going to rush two imminent conclusions, we will certainly take on the members' concerns, the very specific concerns that she raised, but we are determined to progress the work of the ministerial short-life working group with a bit of momentum and a bit of pace, and we are undertaken to keep Parliament fully informed. Jackie Baillie Presiding Officer, that was indeed a helpful response from the cabinet secretary that her mind is not closed to some of the suggestions coming from members. I understand that the Scottish Government issued a letter to all local authorities in November 2013, recategorising certain systems as fire compliant within the building standards regulations. That may have been entirely appropriate, but apparently in this case the council contractor in Westin Bartonshire had itself halted work over an issue relating to the external wall insulation systems that prompted this change. Can I ask the cabinet secretary whether she will publish all the information in relation to this to provide reassurance to my constituents, and can she also tell the chamber how often building standards regulations, or at least the technical aspects of them, are changed in this way? Presiding Officer, I wish to reassure the member by saying that we will indeed publish information that Parliament and indeed members request. We want to be in the business of transparency and indeed reassurance in terms of building standard regulations that are reviewed regularly. In my discussions with building standards professionals within the Scottish Government, they were able to account to me over a number of years the responses that they have taken in response to specific events, specific fires. For example, in 1999, when there was a very tragic fire in Irvine, that led to a revisiting of regulations that meant that all cladden and high-rise dwellings had to be non-combustible. In terms of the very specific issues around Westin Bartonshire, particularly the events that were reported in the press at the weekend, can I categorically say that it is absolutely wrong to suggest that there was any watering down of regulations? The report in the Sunday press refers to a clarification of building regulations in 2013 in relation to classification for external wall cladding to houses where the wall is not more than one metre from the boundary. That is an extremely robust standard for low-rise houses and does not apply to flats of any type at any height. There is no comparison to be made between the events at Grenfell Tower and the minor change in guidance for houses that was made in 2013. There is a lot of interest from members, understandably. I am not sure that I will get them all in, but I will first clear Adamson. As a convener of the cross-party group on accident, revenge and safety awareness, I have seen a number of demonstrations of new technologies that help fire prevention, as well as new technologies in the area of fire suppression. I would like to ask the Government how the ministerial working group on fire safety will ensure that the most up-to-date in emerging technologies is included in order to future-proof any recommendations as we move to more towards smart cities. Let me make two quick points to Ms Adamson's question. First and foremost, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is in the concluding stages of commissioning joint research with the building research establishment-based in Watford and the fire industry association to investigate the use of new technologies to prevent fire fatalities and injuries or, indeed, information about new technologies that would reduce haram. That academic research will include investigation of new technologies such as fire repressing systems and sprinkler systems. The fire services, HQ and firefighter training camps at Campus Lang are also home to the safety house facility and the state of the art house demonstrates and showcases various aspects of fire safety in the home, including the use of technologies such as the smoke detectors and fire suppression devices. I know that the member has a long-standing issue in the history of concern and has, indeed, campaigned on those matters and I know that she is meeting with the local government and housing minister later in this week. With other aspects of Ms Adamson's question, the ministerial working group will be using all information to make informed considerations. It is appropriate for me to inform the chamber that, in terms of the follow-up request to local authorities who had intimated that they have high-rise blocks of over 18m dwelling houses of over 18m high. They were asked very specific questions yesterday by the housing minister on cladding and whether they had cladding that was made from aluminium composite material. I am pleased to say that all those 18 local authorities who had initially replied that they had high-rise dwellings of over 18m have come back to say that none of their cladding is made from aluminium cladding material. The local government and communities committee has been doing an inquiry into building regulations. We have heard that only cursory checks are done across the country on whether building work is done to standard. That applies to new-build homes as well as public buildings, including schools. We will come up with our own recommendations and hope to hold a parliamentary debate, but will the minister agree with me that, in the light of the Grenfell disaster that the regime needs to be improved and quickly? I would like to reiterate what I said earlier in relation to our building standards regulatory framework. It compares well to elsewhere in the UK, but not for a minute will the Government be complacent. We have a system of building standards where building officers have very specific duties and there is the whole process around building warrants. One of the initiatives by the housing and local government minister of introducing fees around building standards is to ensure that we can invest in our building standards system, ensure that it remains fit for purpose and that we are not, for one minute, resting on our laurels. I appreciate the interests of the member and that the local government committee will indeed want to pursue this and other related matters very thoroughly. I thank the Government for its action and I look forward to hearing back from the ministerial working group as to what action has been taken. Residents in Edinburgh have raised concerns to those residents who do not have sprinkler systems in older homes, of which there are many in the city and across Scotland. They have raised those concerns with me and I know that they are raising them directly with the fire service too. What is the Government doing to ensure that the fire service has the capacity and the resources to answer and deal with the greater number of queries that it is receiving at the moment? Presiding Officer, Ms Johnson's question is very epic indeed. That was one of the very matters that we were discussing at the ministerial working group that just met less than an hour ago. The fire and rescue service is currently doing great work—very proactive work in terms of providing reassurance to people who are currently living in high-rise domestic dwellings. What we are looking at very carefully is how we can support the fire and rescue service to maintain that work, because given events in Grenfell, given that it will take some time to understand the causes of tragic events at Grenfell and to work through what action we have and must take, we have to ensure that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is able to continue the very proactive work that it has taken. In the past week, I am pleased to advise chamber that it has undertaken 200 visits to people who live in high-rise flats to reassure them and to issue good sound fire safety advice. The ministerial working group with both momentum and pace will want to look thoroughly at all fire safety matters and all technologies that are indicated to Ms Adamson that have a role to play in reducing that risk. We have to be in the business of preventing tragedy. That, of course, means that we will look at some of the broader issues around sprinkler systems. I recommend the swift work that is taken by social housing providers to engage in forum update and reassure tenants and residents. However, following discussions that I have had with NGHomes, a key housing provider in North Glasgow, it has agreed to go further and establish a tenant scrutiny panel on fire safety. It is membership drawn from those who live in the many high-rises within NGHomes housing stock. Does the cabinet secretary agree that such a scrutiny panel will help to empower concerned residents, provide for a longer-term and strategic local approach to fire safety? Does the cabinet secretary believe that other social housing providers would do well to consider similar models of tenant and resident engagement and empowerment? Yes, I do. There are currently 460 registered tenant organisations in Scotland. They are an established way and effective way of enabling landlords and tenants to work together. They are actually on any issue of concern to tenants, but they are obviously including matters of safety. I would suggest that landlords and tenants use them as a forum to discuss any concerns over specific fire safety matters, but also to enable landlords to explain to their tenants the proactive steps that they are taking to deal with those concerns. I know that many local authorities and registered social landlords are indeed taking those proactive steps to reassure their tenants. It is one of the reasons that the ministerial working group will consider all matters of relevance and not just those matters that are strictly associated with fire safety regulations or building standards. I apologise to members who I could not squeeze in there. 2. James Dornan To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it undertakes with Scotland's Muslim community and whether it will take steps to ensure the safety of mosques in the wake of the latest attack in London. I am sure that I speak for the whole chamber when I say that our thoughts are with everyone caught up in the most recent attack in London. The First Minister yesterday chaired a meeting of the Scottish Government Resilience Committee to ensure that we are closely monitoring the situation. Although there is no specific intelligence of a threat in Scotland, Police Scotland has actively reviewed all safety and security plans at Scotland's mosques. An element of that includes ensuring that our armed policing and special resources are appropriately deployed. The Scottish Government has strong well-established relationships with our Muslim communities and we have been in regular contact to provide reassurance and understand where there may be any tensions. We will not tolerate any attempt to target any community by any misguided individual or group. Police Scotland continues to closely monitor hate crime and we encourage anyone who has been a victim of or witness to hate crime to contact the police and to report the incident. James Dornan I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. During this holy month of Ramadan, Muslim families and communities across Scotland are meeting late in the evenings to break their fast and to join in worship. As consideration being given to special protections around mosques around these times to ensure that our friends in Scotland's Muslim community feel safe and secure as they express their faith and go about their lives. Cabinet secretary, as I mentioned, Police Scotland has now reviewed security and policing arrangements around all of Scotland's mosques and are applying resources as it sees being proportionate and appropriate given the nature of the threat that has been experienced following the incident in London. I can assure the member that that also gives consideration to the key times during the course of the day when there are larger numbers of people at Scotland's mosques. That includes at the time of breaking fast and joining it in prayer in the evening. Police Scotland will continue to keep that under review. It will continue to engage with mosques directly to ensure that they are content with the additional security measures that have been put in place and it will continue to be monitored in the weeks and days ahead. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Last Thursday, I broke the fast when I chaired a constructive meeting in Catharole Paris Church in my constituency with Sunni and Shia Muslims, as well as representatives of Christian denominations. It illustrated perfectly that people of adversity or faiths across our nation share that ambition to build stronger communities and live peacefully together. Cabinet secretary, tell me what is the Scottish Government doing in schools and more generally throughout Scotland to foster tolerance and respect and to end prejudice, discrimination and hate? Cabinet secretary, I believe that the event that Mr Dornan hosted just last week demonstrates that what unites us is greater than what divides us as a society. It is the Government that recognises the importance of having strong, resilient, supportive communities. Last week, the cabinet secretary for community, social security and equalities made a statement in his Parliament setting out our ambitious plan in order to make sure that we take action to effectively tackle hate crime and prejudice within Scottish society and, importantly, to create greater community cohesion. That includes steps to progress relationships and behaviours, working in schools and also in establishing a refreshed anti-bullying guidance programme. That is all about making sure that we address attitudes at an early stage in schools and in our education system of a key part to play in helping to support this work. That is work that we, as a Government, will continue to take forward with our partners within local authorities in the months ahead. I thank the cabinet secretary and members. That concludes topical questions.