Data revealing the condition of all school buildings in England is set to be published before 20 July, schools minister Nick Gibb has said amid fears that the risk of school blocks collapsing is now “very likely”.
Mr Gibb committed to publishing school-level data during a parliamentary debate in which Labour had put forward an unsuccessful motion attempting to force the government to disclose the information.
Labour’s motion had called for the disclosure of data on individual building elements for all state schools from the Department for Education’s latest Condition of School Buildings Survey.
The motion was defeated by 171 votes to 296 but Mr Gibb told MPs that the government was committed to publishing before Parliament’s summer recess, which is expected to start on 20 July.
The debate followed mounting controversy about the condition of the school estate after the DfE’s annual report in December revealed that the risk of school blocks collapsing had been upgraded from “critical” to “very likely”.
In May last year it was reported that internal government documents had warned that the condition of some school buildings posed a risk to life.
Labour’s shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said in the House of Commons: “The debate is taking place just over a year since the public, parents, school staff and children learned, not from a ministerial statement in this House but from a document leaked to The Observer, that many schools buildings in England are now in such a state of disrepair that they are a risk to life. A year. One full year.”
The dangers of dilapidated school buildings
She added: “So, Labour is bringing this motion today to require ministers to finally be upfront with school staff, with parents and with pupils about the true state of our school buildings, about the extent of disrepair, about their neglect over the last 13 years.
“Conservative MPs have the opportunity to vote with Labour today in the public interest and to do what is right by their constituents.”
In response Mr Gibb said the government was “committed to publishing data we have collected through the condition data collection” before the summer recess.
He added: “Nothing is more important than the safety of schools, pupils and those who work in them. School buildings that are well maintained and safe are an essential part of delivering a high-quality education.
“The government carried out a major review of the school estate in 2014 and since then we have completed one of the largest surveys in the UK public sector, in which we reviewed nearly every state school in the country, and we are undertaking a further major survey.
“So we had a lot of work to do when we came into office in 2010, but now we do have that full data.”
He said it was true that the government had raised its assessment of the level of risk in the estate.
Mr Gibb added: “The risk rating that [Bridget Phillipson] referred to in her opening speech reflects the overall age of buildings in the estate, and that we have worked with schools to resolve more issues with their buildings.
“Once the department is made aware of a building that poses risks, immediate action is taken, including closing buildings where necessary.”
“We are also committed to publishing more detailed data as soon as possible. This is an extremely large dataset with 1.2 billion data points, which is taking some time to prepare for publication in a useful format. But we are, nonetheless, preparing it and I can give a commitment that we will publish as soon as possible, and certainly before the summer recess.”
