This guidance document addresses the principles and design methodologies related to the fire-spread performance characteristics of non-loadbearing external cladding systems. Although various potential design solutions have been identified and discussed in this document, robust design details are not presented, as it has been found that generic solutions are not available to this rapidly changing market, where new products and novel design solutions are frequently presented. The illustrations and scenarios presented in this document are based on typical examples of current practice, but, as has already been identified, this field is subject to rapidly changing designs and materials, and so this guidance focuses on the issues surrounding the topic to enable designers and end users to understand better the parameters impacting on the fire-safe design and construction of external cladding systems.

It should be noted that BS 8414-2 and Annex B of this guide relate specifically to external cladding systems applied to steel-frame constructions. At the time of writing this document, consideration has not been given to other construction systems such as concrete-frame or timberframe constructions. However, the general principles given this report may still apply although suitable additional risk assessments and detail design reviews would be required.