The Audit Commission has urged the Buildings Department to expedite follow-up actions on non-compliant cases as part of a regulatory regime aimed at ensuring the safety of windows in buildings.

Under the Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme implemented in 2012, owners of buildings aged 10 years or above who receive statutory notices must appoint a qualified person to inspect all windows in buildings.

The commission noted that more than 26,000 such notices have been met with non-compliance as of the end of last year, with some of them overdue for action by up to almost 12 years.

Between 2017 and 2024, there were 445 incidents involving windows that fell from height.

Of these, 131 owners had been issued with statutory notices before the incidents happened, with 25 of them not having taken action to be in compliance by the time their windows fell.

The director of audit urged the department to come up with measures to get building owners to cooperate and carry out inspections and repairs.

“The Audit Commission has recommended that the Director of Buildings closely monitor for compliance in line with statutory notices under the inspection scheme and take appropriate follow-up actions in cases of non-compliance [in particular, those cases in which fallen window incidents occurred],” it said.

It also urged the department to intensify prosecutions and enforcement actions in such cases.

Another issue flagged up in the report was the selection of target buildings to be issued with statutory notices.

The department has developed a scoring system under which buildings with higher potential risks will be chosen as target buildings.

However, the commission found, 11 buildings were excluded from being targeted in 2023 despite having incidences of falling windows before that, with the number of such buildings rising to 20 last year.

The department said those buildings were not selected after factors such as the causes of the falls and whether previous statutory notices had been complied with had been taken into account.

The commission said the Buildings Department should inform the selection panel of its considerations and make improvements to the selection mechanisms.

In response, the Director of Buildings has said he agrees with the audit recommendations.