Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on providing funding additional to her Department's capital budget to support the implementation of the guidance on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in education settings, published on 31 August 2023.

It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies – who work with their schools on a day to day basis, to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert us if there is a concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the Department is made aware of a building that poses an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.

Ministers and officials have regular discussions with colleagues from HM Treasury.

The Government has committed to spend whatever it takes to keep children safe. The Department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, like transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall or office, the Department will cover all reasonable requests.

The Department will then also fund refurbishment or rebuilding projects, to rectify the RAAC issue in the long term. Schools and colleges will either be offered capital grants to fund refurbishment work to permanently remove RAAC, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, including through the School Rebuilding Programme. The Department will set out further details for affected schools and colleges in due course.

The cost of the work needed at each school with RAAC will vary depending on the extent of the issue and the nature of the buildings. The Department is working closely with affected schools and colleges to understand and support their needs. The Department has also assigned a dedicated caseworker to each school and college affected, who will work with them to assess their particular needs and implement individually designed mitigation plans.

More broadly, the Department has continued to invest in improving the condition of schools and colleges, with over £15 billion allocated since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed for the 2023/24 financial year. On top of this, the Department is transforming 500 schools through the School Rebuilding Programme. A total of 400 schools have been confirmed, with 100 places reserved for later in the programme. Buildings in the poorest condition and those with evidence of potential safety issues have been prioritised, including some now known to contain RAAC. The Department is committed to the projects that have already been announced as being rebuilt or refurbished through the School Rebuilding Programme.

The Department will always put the safety and wellbeing of pupils and staff in schools and colleges at the heart of its policy decisions. The Government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed, governments overseas.