Minister claims response to crumbling concrete disaster is ‘world-leading’
T
he response to the crumbling concrete disaster has been “world-leading”, an training minister mentioned regardless of ordering the complete or partial closure of greater than 100 faculties in England simply earlier than the beginning of time period.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb’s feedback got here after his boss Gillian Keegan mentioned she was annoyed that nobody was acknowledging what a “f****** good job” she was doing.
Mr Gibb mentioned the Department for Education (DfE) was performing to maintain youngsters protected from the chance posed by collapse-prone bolstered autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac).
Asked concerning the Education Secretary’s sweary outburst, Mr Gibb informed 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.”
Mr Gibb promised an inventory of colleges affected will probably be revealed “before Friday” as he put the delay all the way down to the necessity for it to be “accurate”.
In criticism caught on digicam after an interview on Monday, a annoyed Ms Keegan hit out at those that she argued had “sat on their arse and done nothing”.
She additionally questioned why nobody was saying “you’ve done a f****** good job”, earlier than being pressured to go earlier than broadcasters to apologise for the language she used.
Ms Keegan went on to confess to being on vacation in Spain within the run as much as ordering greater than 100 faculties and faculties in England to make full or partial closures.
She was dealing with her Cabinet colleagues on Tuesday morning because the Prime Minister assembled his prime workforce for his or her first assembly since coming back from the lengthy Commons’ summer season break.
Ministers have been accused of taking a “sticking plaster approach” to important upkeep by the pinnacle of the Whitehall spending watchdog.
Writing within the Times, National Audit Office chief Gareth Davies prompt that there had not been adequate concentrate on “unflashy but essential tasks” equivalent to sustaining public buildings which have confronted “underinvestment”.
Mr Gibb mentioned he didn’t “accept” the cost, telling Sky News: “We’re spending £1.8 billion a year… and we are taking more proactive action on that than any other government in the world.”
He additionally sought to defend Rishi Sunak’s decision-making whereas chancellor, after he was accused by a former prime official on the DfE of getting declined a request for funding to rebuild extra faculties on the time.
But Mr Gibb admitted that the DfE requested for funding to overtake 200 faculties a yr in 2021 just for Mr Sunak to grant funding for simply 50 a yr.
“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 informed Sky.
“Of course we put in a bid for 200, but of course the Treasury then has to compare that with all the other priorities from right across Whitehall, from the health service, defence, and so on.”
On Monday, the Prime Minister admitted lots of extra faculties might have been constructed with problematic Raac.
He insisted that 95% of England’s faculties have been unaffected, leaving open the likelihood that greater than a thousand might nonetheless be impacted by the collapse-risk materials.
Downing Street mentioned the whole quantity was anticipated to be within the lots of somewhat than the hundreds.
Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer mentioned it was “unforgivable” that youngsters have been lacking the beginning of time period as a result of crumbling concrete disaster.
Opening a gathering of his reshuffled shadow cupboard, Sir Keir mentioned: “Children are not at school today because of the action the Government has failed to take in relation to schools. That is unforgivable.
“It is a metaphor, frankly, for their sticking plaster politics: never fixing the fundamentals – always sticking plasters.”