RAAC concrete: Rishi Sunak helps Gillian Keegan’s dealing with of disaster regardless of criticism from Whitehall

Rishi Sunak has backed Gillian Keegan’s dealing with of the faculties concrete disaster after she was accused of opening up a “Pandora’s box” by taking unilateral selections on the difficulty.

The prime minister stated the Department for Education (DfE) had acted “exactly correctly” upon studying that greater than 100 faculties have been affected by the presence of collapse-prone reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

In whole 147 faculties have been recognized as containing RAAC after the government responded to demands from the Opposition to publish the full list.

The begin of time period has been delayed at 19 faculties – answerable for 11,150 pupils – whereas 4 faculties with a complete of two,938 pupils have additionally needed to return to distant studying, with the remaining having to resort to a mixture of distant studying and face-to-face tuition.

Speaking to reporters whereas on a visit to the G20 summit in Delhi, Mr Sunak stated the motion taken by the federal government “will ensure the safety of children and these buildings”.

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“We’re providing lots of support to schools so that we can mitigate these things as quickly as possible, minimise the disruption of children’s education,” he stated.

“But the professional advice from the independent bodies on RAAC remains as it is. Departments individually will follow that advice as it relates to their particular estate.”

Mr Sunak’s defence comes after Sky News revealed that Ms Keegan had come under fire from colleagues for her “unilateral” decision to find out which college buildings wanted to shut following RAAC considerations.

Ministers in Whitehall concern she has opened a “Pandora’s box” by setting a extra cautious than essential customary that might affect a huge array of public buildings, together with housing inventory, native authority buildings and the navy property.

The training secretary has made clear she took essentially the most cautious of the choices introduced by officers over which buildings to close final week.

Sky News understands that the choice was signed off by the training group in Number 10 with the prime minister’s data.

However, there was no Cabinet Office assembly and no ministerial follow-up for days after the difficulty emerged. The Department for Education “belatedly” shared the technical recommendation on why they shut faculties with others in Whitehall – a few of whom disagree it reveals a have to shut faculties.

Sky News understands she “informed” the related Whitehall committees, which have been coping with the difficulty of crumbling concrete for years. However, she didn’t totally seek the advice of or safe an settlement for her transfer.

“This is suboptimal,” stated a senior Whitehall determine. “She has made a unilateral decision. It’s not been resolved, and it’s a bit of a mess.”

The unravelling of the RAAC disaster coincided with parliament coming back from the summer season recess – creating a fresh headache for Mr Sunak.

At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer said cowboys were “running the country” as he criticised the Tories over the disaster unfolding in England’s faculties.

The Labour chief stated college closures on account of unsafe concrete have been an “inevitable result of 13 years of cutting corners and sticking plaster politics”.

The authorities has confronted criticism for trying to shift the blame after Ms Keegan bemoaned that she had not been thanked for doing a “f*****g good job” whereas different individuals had been “sat on their arses” in a sweary outburst that she later apologised for.

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She later told school leaders to “get off their backsides” and fill out a survey informing ministers of whether or not their buildings contained RAAC.

Elsewhere, Mr Sunak addressed fears about hospitals that had been constructed with RAAC, saying the NHS had been wanting on the concern “for years” and had a £700m mitigation programme in place.

“We’ve already moved seven hospitals that are particularly affected into the new hospital programme,” he stated.

“They will be all sorted by 2030. Each department will have its own particular way of dealing with it and following the technical guidance that is there.

“The chancellor has been very clear that we are going to present the funding for faculties for these mitigations.”