Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has said that there are now 40 Scottish schools known to contain the potentially dangerous building material reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Earlier this week social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said that 37 schools contained the concrete, which is prone to collapse, but today at First Minister’s Questions Mr Yousaf said that 40 schools were now known to contain the material and that the Scottish government planned to publish a list of the schools “at the end of the week”.
Mr Yousaf also said that the government would publish information on the measures being taken by the schools to ensure that staff and pupils are safe. He said this would “give some confidence to parents and pupils and staff who are in those schools”.
However, he gave no indication of how much money would be made available to schools and councils to address the problem.
RAAC concrete risk in Scottish schools
Mr Yousaf said: “In terms of funding, we are aware of some local authorities wanting the discussion in and around funding and, of course, we will continue to have those discussions with local authorities but ultimately they are the ones who are responsible for the safety of the school estate.”
He said that deputy first minister Shona Robison had written to the UK government on 16 August “to call for the allocation of additional funding” to tackle RAAC.
Mr Yousaf made his comments in response to a question from Labour leader Anas Sarwar at First Minister’s Questions this afternoon.
Mr Yousaf said that the government had known about the dangers associated with RAAC for “not just many months” but “years”. He said the government had been “proactive over that period”.
Education secretary Jenny Gilruth in particular, he said, had been involved in discussions with local authorities “to ensure we have a full understanding of the picture”, and education leaders had been given “appropriate guidance from the Institution of Structural Engineers”.
However, speaking after FMQs, Mr Sarwar said the Institution of Structural Engineers said it began inspections in schools for RAAC in 2018 and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it warned that buildings were at risk of collapse two years ago.
“We need to know when exactly the government first became aware of the issue and what steps it took,” Mr Sarwar said.
He added that at least five of the schools seeking funding through the next phase of the government’s school rebuilding programme contain RAAC but the government had delayed the programme.
The Scottish government was supposed to announce which new schools would be awarded funding from the third phase of the Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP3) at the end of last year but Mr Sarwar said the schools were “still waiting”.
Last week it emerged that the Department for Education in England had advised more than 100 schools to vacate all buildings containing RAAC days before the start of the new term.
Yesterday the UK government published a list of the 147 schools in England confirmed to have RAAC.
Of these, 43 have had to take actions to mitigate the risk, including 19 that have had to delay the start of term. Another 20 schools on the list are in a mix of face-to-face and remote learning, and four are fully remote.
At FMQs today Mr Sarwar asked how many schools in Scotland had been forced to close - or partially close - but Mr Yousaf did not provide figures. Instead, he said the mitigations in place varied “from school to school”. He said that at St Kentigern’s Academy in West Lothian, for example, parts of the school had been closed, including the dining and kitchen areas, and that Preston Lodge High School in East Lothian had closed “impacted classrooms and other areas”.
