Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools have asbestos on their estate; how many schools have an asbestos management plan in place; and what funding her Department has provided to the London Borough of Harrow for the (a) removal and (b) management of asbestos in each of the last 13 years.

The Department takes the safety of children and those who work with them very seriously and expects Local Authorities, governing bodies and academy trusts to have robust plans in place to manage asbestos in school buildings effectively, in line with their legal duties.

Asbestos duty holders, such as Local Authorities and academy trusts, are responsible for understanding the presence of asbestos in schools and putting appropriate measures in place for its management.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regulates schools’ compliance with legislation to manage their asbestos safely. These require duty holders to have a robust asbestos management plan, train staff, and maintain an asbestos register detailing location, type, and condition of asbestos in their buildings.

Information on how schools are managing asbestos is now being collected via the Department’s Condition Data Collection 2 (CDC2) programme, which started in 2021 and will complete in 2026.

The Department has committed £1.8 billion of capital funding for the 2023/24 financial year to improve the condition of school buildings, as part of over £15 billion allocated since 2015. In addition, the Department will transform poor condition buildings at 500 schools and colleges through the School Rebuilding Programme.

The Department provides annual capital funding to Local Authorities to improve the condition of their schools and keep them safe and compliant with relevant regulations, including removing asbestos, when it cannot be managed safely in situ. Harrow local authority was allocated £2.7 million in School Condition Allocations for the 2023/24 financial year to provide funding to the schools for which it is responsible. This is part of £19 million allocated since 2015, when School Condition Allocations were introduced.