The Government have no plans to amend the building regulations or associated statutory guidance relating to ventilation in the light of the Green Deal.

Requirements for protecting the building fabric against condensation and for providing adequate ventilation for people are set out in Part C (Site preparation and resistance to contaminants and moisture) and Part F (Ventilation) of the Building Regulations 2010. Guidance on ways of meeting these requirements is given in Approved Documents C and F. We have no evidence that the current guidance is inadequate.

The department currently has extant guidance on natural ventilation in healthcare premises contained within Health Technical Memorandum (HTM) 03-01: Specialised ventilation for healthcare premises, Chapter 2 provision of ventilation in healthcare buildings. This guidance was published in November 2007. This is best practice guidance and is implemented at local level.

The department has previously commissioned two research projects on natural ventilation:

Title: Natural ventilation provision in hospital B(02)08

The organisation commissioned to carry out the research in 2002 was the Building Research Establishment (BRE). Its peer reviewed report was published in 2007 and is available through Space for Health www.spaceforhealth.nhs.uk.

Title: Design strategy for low energy ventilation and cooling of health buildings B(06)03

The organisation commissioned to carry out the research in 2006 was the University of Cambridge. The report is published as two peer-reviewed papers in two international research journals:

Short C.A., Al-Maiyah S. (2009) ‘Design Strategy for low energy ventilation and cooling of hospitals' Building Research and Information, (2009) 37(3), 1-29.doi: 10.1080/09613210902885156; and

Short, C.A., Cook, M., Cropper, P.C. and Al-Maiyah, S. (2009) 'Low Energy refurbishment strategies for health buildings' Journal of Building Performance Simulation.

The papers can be found at: www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/robusthospitals/publications.html.