The government is urging the mortgage industry to move away from requiring EWS1 forms

At a Westminster Hall debate on 15th September, MHCLG minister Florence Eshalomi said that the government would continue to "stress very loudly" that lenders should be moving away from using EWS1 forms.  However, she disagreed with Al Pinkerton, the MP for Surrey Heath on the question of the PAS 9980 Standard, which was intended to replace the EWS1 form when assessing cladding safety risks.  While Mr Pinkerton said that the Standard relies “heavily on professional and subjective judgement”, Ms Eshalomi insisted that "PAS 9980 provides an industry-wide accepted methodology to enable qualified and experienced assessors to undertake the fire risk appraisal of external walls".