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Thousands more schools could have dangerous crumbling concrete, a senior Tory MP has suggested, after the Government admitted it had not yet counted questionnaire responses sent out to at-risk schools.
The Department for Education (DfE) said it had sent out surveys to more than 15,000 schools across England asking them to self-report whether their buildings contained reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Baroness Barran, the Minister for Schools Systems, said during an Education Select Committee hearing on Tuesday that the “vast majority” had responded, but the DfE was yet to count the number of schools that had replied saying they “don’t know” whether they contain RAAC.
“We’re going through those at the moment and I’m not in a position to be able to give you a number on that,” she said.
The minister added that the DfE would commission site surveys for all schools that responded with “don’t know” when asked whether they contained RAAC.
Robin Walker, a senior Tory MP and chair of the committee, accused the DfE of missing a “crucial” piece of information that suggested thousands more schools could be at risk.
“The figures that you’ve published about the number of schools that have responded, I mean if a significant proportion of those are schools say that ‘we don’t know’ [whether they contain RAAC] – then they’re kind of irrelevant really,” he said.
“Surely, you ought to be working to a point at which you know how many schools are there where there is uncertainty about RAAC, and therefore how many [ground] surveys will be needed?”
Mr Walker added: “I mean, that’s got to be a pretty crucial bit of information for the department, doesn’t it?”
It comes as the Government published updated figures on Tuesday showing that an extra 27 schools in England have been added to the list of institutions where RAAC has been identified with certainty. It brings the total number to 174.
The DfE said 148 of the 174 education settings confirmed to have collapse-risk concrete are offering full-time, face-to-face learning to all pupils.
Baroness Barran added that that 98.6 per cent of the 15,158 schools built during the RAAC era between the 60s and 80s had responded to the DfE’s questionnaire asking them for further details, meaning that around 212 schools are still yet to reply.
The minister said the DfE would make contact with the schools that are yet to respond “imminently”, but admitted the uncertainty over the state of the buildings was concerning.
“Honestly, we are now at the point where we’re just going to be ringing them up individually, and luckily it’s a very small number but these calls are going to be starting imminently. I mean it’s worrying,” she said.
It comes after the department was plunged into crisis earlier this month as it told more than 100 schools they must shut classrooms deemed at risk of collapse over crumbling concrete, just three days before schools were due to return from the summer holidays.
The decision was prompted by a beam collapse at a school in July which had not been considered at “critical” risk of crumbling. The DfE said a further “plank collapse” at a commercial building in late August rushed the Government into sending out urgent warnings.
Several Tory MPs voiced their anger on Tuesday over the Government’s failure to provide figures on the number of portacabins that have been delivered to schools forced to shut due to the risk of crumbling concrete.
Anna Firth, the Tory MP for Southend West, said during the select committee meeting it was ” incredibly frustrating” that despite asking for the statistics several weeks ago, DfE officials responded at 9pm on Monday night with a “non-answer”.
Mark Francois, a former minister, accused the department of “telling fibs,” “guff” and “nonsense” over temporary accommodation for schools found to contain RAAC.
He claimed that DfE officials promised that Hockley Primary School in his Rayleigh and Wickford constituency in Essex would receive eight temporary classrooms by Monday 4 September, only to confirm later that they would not be delivered until mid-November.
“Your officials came up with some guff about ‘it was all to do with the ground was too soft’. No, that was all nonsense, they just didn’t have the classrooms,” Mr Francois told Susan Acland-Hood, the permanent secretary at the DfE.
“So to use polite language, someone’s been telling fibs, haven’t they?”, he added.
Ms Acland-Hood said DfE officials had “absolutely not” provided incorrect information to MPs, and that the department was working as quickly as possible to provide support for affected schools.
She added that the DfE has made orders for 248 temporary classrooms so far, including 180 single classrooms and 68 doubles-sized classrooms, but that she did not know the number that have been delivered, nor how many would be required in total.
Around a third of the schools found to contain RAAC so far are in Essex, with 31,255 pupils affected in the region. Some have been forced to switch to remote working while remediation takes place, while others have temporarily been moved to nearby schools.