Schools: Asbestos

(asked on 12th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the School Rebuilding Programme will prioritise the replacement of CLASP schools to ensure teachers and schoolchildren are safe from the health effects of asbestos.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 15th April 2021

The Department for Education takes the issue of asbestos in schools very seriously and is committed to supporting schools, local authorities and academy trusts to fulfil their duty to manage asbestos safely. Expert advice from the Health and Safety Executive is that if asbestos is unlikely to be damaged or disturbed then it is best managed in situ. We are clear that if asbestos does pose a safety risk and cannot be effectively managed in situ, then it should be removed from schools.

Since 2015, the Department has allocated over £9.5 billion, including an additional £560 million in 2020-21, to those responsible for school buildings for essential maintenance and improvements, including removing or encapsulation when it is the safest course of action to do so.

In February, we announced the first 50 schools to benefit from the new School Rebuilding Programme as part of a commitment to 500 projects over the next decade. School Rebuilding Programme investment is targeted based on a buildings condition. A full explanation of the methodology used to prioritise the first 50 schools has been published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme.

We intend to consult later this year on the approach to prioritising schools for the longer-term programme.

Reticulating Splines