Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's Department for Education consolidated annual report and accounts 2021 to 2022 published 19 December 2022, what estimate she has made of the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) England and (ii) Wirral West constituency that have buildings rated as very likely to collapse.

The Department prioritises capital support where there is a risk to health and safety.

The building safety risk level was uprated last year reflecting an increasingly ageing estate, with more buildings reaching the end of their design life, reflecting in part the nature of materials and approaches used to build schools in the post-war period.

Department officials are clear that there are no areas within schools open to pupils where there is a known immediate risk of collapse.

Over £13 billion has been allocated since 2015 to maintain and improve school facilities across England, including £1.8 billion in 2022/23. The Department will improve school facilities at 500 schools and sixth form colleges over the next decade. In December 2022, the Department announced 239 more schools were to be rebuilt or refurbished through the School Rebuilding Programme, taking the total to 400 of the 500 projects already planned.

Where a building risks closure on safety grounds, and the issues cannot be managed within the school’s resource, the Department will always provide additional advice and support on a case-by-case basis.