RAAC concrete crisis: Gillian Keegan defends Spain holiday as Schools Minister claims 'world-leading' response

The government is under more pressure over dangerous schools, after it emerged the Education Secretary was on holiday in Spain as the crisis unfolded.

Gillian Keegan defended holidaying with her family for her father's birthday, saying she "always worked remotely" to chair the response to the crumbling concrete, which has led to 104 school buildings being declared unsafe.

Aides conceded on Monday (4 September) she was in Spain between 25 August and Thursday (31 August), when the closures at more than 100 schools were ordered just days before the start of term. Ministers have said they were acting after receiving concerning new evidence about reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) over the summer.

Her holiday emerged as Keegan was under pressure after being caught on microphone suggesting “everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing” as she tackled the crisis. She was also heard asking why no one had said "you know what you've done a f*****g good job".

While earlier today, Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the government's response to the crisis had been "world-leading", despite some schools only being told they had to close today.

Asked about the Education Secretary’s sweary outburst, Gibb told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What she was trying to get across is the huge amount of work that the DfE has done. We are world-leading in terms of identifying where RAAC is in our school estate.

“We’re talking about a small number of schools out of 22,500 schools, but we have conducted surveys since March last year, so we know where RAAC is, and we’re sending in surveyors to identify RAAC.

“And then the decision was taken, an important decision was taken last Thursday to keep children safe with new evidence that emerged about non-critical RAAC that we now believe is unsafe, and we took the difficult decision because we want to keep children safe.”

It comes as thousands of pupils are facing disruption at the start of term this week, after an order to fully or partially close 104 schools because of concerns about collapse-prone reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). This type of concrete, which was used as a common building material from the 50s until the early 90s, is reportedly “prone to collapse”.

The government has still not published a list of all the schools that are deemed dangerous as Gibb said this was due to the need for it to be "accurate", but he promised it would happen "before Friday”.

Rishi Sunak said that 95% of state schools were safe, which means more than a thousand could potentially be unsafe. Downing Street then clarified that the total number was expected to be in the hundreds rather than the thousands and the vast majority of schools would not be affected.

The Prime Minister had earlier described suggestions that he had cut school rebuilding funding, while he was Chancellor, as "completely wrong".

Jonathan Slater, who was permanent secretary at the Department for Education, from May 2016 to August 2020, said that while up to 400 schools a year need to be replaced, but the DfE only got funding for 100, which was "frustrating".

In an interview with the BBC, he claimed that in 2021 Rishi Sunak actually halved the funding - so only 50 schools a year would be rebuilt. This was during the midst of the Covid pandemic.

Despite the Prime Minister saying this was "utterly untrue", today (5 September) Gibb confirmed that when Sunak was Chancellor he had gone with other priorities over a request to increase school rebuilding funding.

Gibb said he did not recognise the 400 figure but admitted that the DfE asked for funding to overhaul 200 schools a year in 2021 only for Mr Sunak to agree funding for just 50 a year.

“We put in a bid for 200, but what Rishi agreed to was to continue the rebuilding programme with 50 a year, consistent with what we’d been doing since we came into office,” the minister told Sky News.

The DfE also conceded that just four schools have been rebuilt so far under the programme at the centre of the RAAC row, which the Prime Minister also said was erroneous.

Labour analysis of National Audit Office figures found that spending on school rebuilding dropped by 41% while Sunak was Chancellor. It said the school rebuilding budget in 2019-20 was £765 million, but after Sunak became Chancellor this dropped to £560 million in 2020-21 and as little as £416 million in 2021-22.

Unions and industry groups said they have been warning the government since 2018 over concerns around the safety of school buildings.

Cllr Kevin Bentley, senior vice-chairman of the Local Government Association, said: “Leaving this announcement until near the end of the summer holidays, rather than at the beginning, has left schools and councils with very little time to make urgent rearrangements and minimise disruption to classroom learning.

“The LGA has been warning of the risk from RAAC in schools since 2018. The government should urgently establish a taskforce, including with the LGA and councils to ensure the safety of both pupils and staff in the long term.”

Thirteen national education associations wrote to every Conservative MP in October last year warning about funding, saying they were concerned about the 2,000 schools which contained RAAC. At the time, they warned that these roofs are prone to collapse.

And in February, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) along with seven unions wrote to the DfE urging it to disclose which school buildings are most at risk and have an urgent intervention

Last week, NationalWorld revealed that the Department for Education's own risk level of school buildings collapsing was upgraded to "critical - very likely" two years ago.