Mr. Pat Montague:

Where the issue came up, to be fair, was there was a significant flaw regarding the building regulations that apply between 1991 and early 2014. It was more a flaw in the oversight mechanisms within that and that is why they were changed in 2014, It is also why the scheme, in terms of defects, applies during the lifetime of those particular regulations. All that was required from a certification point of view was an inspection upon completion and that was a visual inspection. The reality is fire-stopping or the lack of it, is not amenable to a visual inspection upon completion. Why? Because it is behind wall panels, it is under floorboards or is in ceilings and external walls. The only way you can detect this, and this goes back to even putting together an application for grants, is you have to do opening-up works. You literally have to bore holes into walls, floors and ceilings to see if fire-stopping is there or not.

They have changed the regulatory framework so that it is now required for inspections during the construction process, whereas then there were not.