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I know that we will touch on this later, as the committee will want to ask about it, but it is important to look at legislation. That would, in part, be about making sure that we get over that problem. We will touch on that more, and I referred to it in my opening remarks. Part of the reason why we are considering legislation is that the more quickly we can remediate buildings, the better it is for everyone. That issue has been identified and will be part of any legislation, if that is where we move to.

I will bring in Rachel Sunderland on that.

That is probably about looking at a number of things. One is remediation of the buildings, and another is the mitigation of fire safety risks and ensuring that we can take action more quickly than we can at the moment. Obviously, we have reached agreement with the developers, but it is about tying that into legislation as we progress.

You are right, Mr Griffin. The first key principle was establishing the agreement with wave 1 developers, which built most of the buildings.

My background is 20 years in corporate banking, and I dealt a lot with small and medium-sized builders and developers. We need a more nuanced approach. The last thing that we need is to put such builders out of business. We are closely looking at the £10 million figure and the loan scheme in Wales, and officials are in constant dialogue with UK and Welsh Government officials. Just a few weeks ago, I had an interministerial meeting with UK, Welsh and Northern Ireland colleagues, talking specifically about cladding, and I will have a follow-up meeting with UK and Welsh Government colleagues on the issue.

We are looking at the two things that you mentioned, but we need a more nuanced approach than that to support SMEs. Obviously, they have their responsibilities, but we need to make sure that they do not go out of business because of the issue. The general principle is that it needs a more nuanced approach. We will go into that, but we are looking at the two schemes that you mentioned and are in constant dialogue with officials from the UK and Welsh Governments.

I mentioned that we are trying to identify where there are immediate issues of high risk. I will bring in Rachel on that point.

Officials meet almost weekly, so I will bring in Stephen Garvin and Rachel Sunderland in a second on the technical discussions.

Mr Griffin mentioned the Welsh Government loan scheme. We are looking at that as well. Coming back to the point on legislation, we have talked about the UK Government’s responsible actors scheme, and we are looking at the potential applicability of that in Scotland. Those are two key things.

I mentioned the interministerial group that met a couple of weeks ago—I think that it was on 10 May. I am seeking separate meetings with the UK Government and the Welsh Government to talk in more detail about what they do. The interministerial group meeting was a short one. It was useful, but I need longer discussions about what they do. It is a UK issue, and we need to look at how closely we can work with the UK and Welsh Governments on that matter.

Rachel and Stephen can comment on the discussions that they have been having. From a political point of view, it is about working closely with those Governments, and looking at the two schemes that I mentioned and at their applicability. There needs to be a UK-based requirement or settlement. It is up for discussion and to be further advanced politically.

We will come back to you to agree the best way for us to keep the committee updated on that.

We will discuss with the UK and Welsh Governments what their approach is, how they undertake it and how they engage. Individual discussions on the subject are on-going. For example, we have had discussions with the Wheatley Group about the buildings that it is developing to ensure that they meet the standards.

We have talked about our engagement with Homes for Scotland on what its responsibility is and what the Scottish Government’s responsibility is. It is about looking into where the responsibility lies. Does it lie with Government or with the developers? Individual discussions are on-going with major stakeholders, but I will raise the matter with UK and Welsh Government colleagues.

As Stephen Garvin said, there is a duty of care in the sector. We are encouraging stakeholders to come forward if there are discussions to be had about how we can work with them on that.

We have recognised that in the department, Mr Briggs. On the broader resources that will be required, however, we will be sitting down with Homes for Scotland as well as UK and Welsh Government officials.

A strategic board was set up for housing to 2040, and the present Deputy First Minister chaired the first meeting, in March. Going forward, I will chair that group. We do not have a date for the next meeting as yet, but we plan for it to be before the summer recess. At the moment, we are setting out the strategic objectives. Those issues have not been discussed, but some of what has been raised at committee will be discussed by the strategic board. Stakeholders will feed into that as well, and I imagine that they will raise the issue. We hope to report some progress on that to the committee and the Parliament. We have had only one meeting so far and the next strategic meeting will be in June. There will probably be progress on the strategic objectives by that time, and the housing to 2040 strategic board will look at them. There are plans to get that in the diary for before the summer recess.