Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of (a) pupils and (b) schools that have been unable to take part in national tests due to disruption caused by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in the last 12 months.

Thanks to the hard work of school and college leaders, all schools and colleges with confirmed RAAC are providing full time face-to-face education for all pupils. The department is supporting schools and colleges to keep any disruption to education to an absolute minimum.

Every case is unique and the impact on schools and colleges can be highly varied. Departmental officials work with schools and colleges to put in place a bespoke plan based on their circumstances. In some cases, there is no impact on teaching space, or it is limited to small areas. For others, mitigation plans can include using other spaces on the school site or locally until building works are carried out or temporary buildings are installed. Where some short term disruption is inevitable, all available measures will be taken to minimise disruption to teaching. From the department’s experience to date, where remote teaching was used for a period, the typical time out of school was a matter of days.

As of 20 February 2024, 2 primary schools in England were exempted from participation in one or more statutory primary assessments in the last 12 months due to areas with confirmed RAAC being taken out of use. Across the 2 schools, this impacted 355 pupils across the relevant year groups.