Last week the British Standards Institute (BSI) published a draft form of PAS (publicly available specification) 9980: Fire risk appraisal and assessment of external wall construction and cladding of existing blocks of flats.

The length of the title alone suggests that this is not going to be concise and, at 182 pages, you will need a free weekend to be able to read it all for the first time.

Of course, this is a very serious matter and the document’s length and detailed content are warranted. Credit should be given to all those who have worked on it for producing the draft in such a short period of time. Included are fire incident case studies, a history of fire safety regulations and standards and a glossary of definitions which will be of interest and use to many in the industry.

The draft standard has been eagerly awaited by some owners of multi-occupancy residential buildings so that they can begin to understand if the external walls of their buildings may pose a low or tolerable risk and will or will not require remediation.

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