Will the Minister explain why the Joint Inspection Team announced in a written statement on 29 March 2022 is not up and running?
We are progressing with the establishment of a Joint Inspection Team for Building Safety in Wales (the ‘JIT’). The Welsh Local Government Association is hosting the JIT and appointed a Strategic Lead for the JIT towards the end of last year.
I have approved funding of up to £1.348m for the JIT to run for a pilot period of 2 years and officials continue to work closely with the Strategic Lead, the WLGA and partners to finalise a number of matters. In the meantime, the structure of the JIT has been agreed along with job descriptions for the Principal Advisors and discussions are commencing on the programme of inspections. We anticipate recruitment will commence shortly and, subject to the necessary indemnity cover being in place, we expect that the team should be operational by the new year.