The Scottish government is calling for the UK government to make new money available so that buildings - including schools - that are found to contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) can be refurbished and replaced.
It has described recent briefings coming out of the UK government indicating that there will be no new money as “deeply worrying” and has warned that “after a decade of Tory austerity and cuts to capital budgets, it is simply not sustainable for the UK government to say that no new money will be made available”.
The Scottish government also today hit out at Westminster’s handling of the risk posed by the building material RAAC, which is prone to collapse.
In a statement to the Scottish Parliament on RAAC this afternoon, the social justice secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, said the UK government’s actions had “highlighted a deeply concerning level of chaos”.
Ms Somerville also said the UK government had been “completely reckless and irresponsible” in the way it had shared information with devolved administrations and had “spread unnecessary alarm amongst parents, staff and children”.
Last week more than 100 schools in England were told to vacate all buildings containing RAAC just days before the start of the new term.
However, in her statement Ms Somerville said the Scottish government had found out about the UK government’s change in approach to RAAC “through the media”.
She said: “Events of recent weeks have highlighted a deeply concerning level of chaos in the UK government overseen by the secretary of state for education. It is totally unacceptable that UK ministers prioritise briefing the media before alerting or sharing crucial information with devolved government.”
UK government ‘withheld information’ on RAAC
Ms Somerville said that the Scottish government was “still awaiting detailed and comprehensive structural reports which we requested on Sunday 3 September, and again on Tuesday 5 September”.
She added: “The withholding of this information was completely reckless and irresponsible. The secretary of state’s disregard of the work of devolved governments could not be clearer. But more importantly, it has spread unnecessary alarm amongst parents, staff and children.”
Ms Somerville said the new approach to RAAC in England had been triggered by the collapse of a concrete beam in a Scottish school in March. The incident happened at Queen Victoria School in Dunblane, a school for the children of UK armed forces personnel that is run by the Ministry of Defence. She said that, while the issue was investigated by the MOD in April and reported to the Department for Education in May, the first time the Scottish government knew anything about it was 31 August.
Ms Somerville said: “This is a very clear example, once again, of a disappointing lack of sharing of information for that exact school.”
In Scotland 40 schools are now known to contain RAAC, and earlier today the first minister, Humza Yousaf, said a list of all of the schools with the concrete would be published by the end of the week, along with details of the measures being taken to make them safe.
Ms Somerville said that wherever RAAC has been found, “mitigations have been put in place”.
However, she said that although mitigations were in place, “significant work would have to take place in dealing with RAAC over the longer term”.
She added: “The first minister has been clear that while we don’t have contingencies within government to spend on RAAC, we will, of course, spend what we need to spend in order to ensure that our buildings are safe for those that use them.
“I was pleased to see the chancellor [Jeremy Hunt] seeming to commit over the weekend that the UK government will spend what is needed on this, but the more recent briefings coming out of the UK government, that there will be no new money, are deeply worrying.
“Let me be clear that after a decade of Tory austerity and cuts to capital budgets, it is simply not sustainable for the UK government to say that no new money will be made available.”
However, opposition politicians have questioned whether the Scottish government moved quickly enough with the information it did have about RAAC and the danger it posed.
Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said if the government had really been across the problem, Parliament and the public would have known sooner that 40 schools and “an untold number of hospitals” were affected.
He said: “Ministers were nowhere near even understanding this - no money was put aside.”
Earlier this week - after it was forced to close two schools because of concerns about RAAC - the Welsh government also hit out at the Department for Education for failing to share new evidence on the danger posed by the concrete.
