Vertical movement joints accommodate the movement along the length of a building. In many buildings, a structural movement joint (commonly known as an expansion joint) may be incorporated in the design of the main building structure and, where this is the case, the joint has to be taken through the cladding.
These are provided to accommodate the dimensional changes (most likely to be differential) between the units and the structure to which they are fixed, so that the cladding is not disrupted.
A movement joint should be placed between 1.5m and 3.0m away from any corner of the building, and the distance between the joints should not exceed 6m. Again, guidance for these can be found in 'BS 8298:1994', page 30.