Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of providing additional funding to remove the presence of RAAC in schools.

Education is a devolved matter; and the response outlines the information for England only and not Northern Ireland.

The department will always put the safety and wellbeing of children and staff in education settings at the heart of its policy decisions.

The department will spend whatever it takes to keep pupils safe and is funding the emergency work needed to mitigate the presence of RAAC in school and college buildings in England, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges in England need additional help with revenue costs, all reasonable requests are being approved.

The department will also fund the removal of RAAC from the school and college estate in England. Schools and colleges in England will either be offered capital grants, 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.

Ministers and officials have regular discussions with colleagues from His Majesty’s Treasury on a range of issues. The department’s immediate support will be managed from unallocated departmental budgets. This will not have an impact on existing programmes. The department will provide further information about funding at relevant points in due course.

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.