They say rules are meant to be broken, and that certainly seems to be the approach adopted by one red-faced government department this week. The Department for Communities and Local Government, which has responsibility among other things for legislation that compels landlords to carry out proper fire risk assessments, was the subject of embarrassing headlines after it emerged that it has had a notice served on it by the Crown Premises Inspection Group. Not only had the department failed to comply with fire prevention procedures, but the inspectors also warned that a new café area compromised fire protection with the threat of ‘uncontrolled fire spreading throughout the building’. Better hope nobody burns their toast.

Fire minister Bob Neill admitted that the department should be following its own standards, but was (understandably) quick to blame the last government. However, he stressed that, on learning of the notice, ‘which we inherited from the previous administration’, he was taking the matter ‘extremely seriously’. It’s all Gordon Brown’s fault, of course.