Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what statutory requirement schools must follow to ensure that school playing fields have perimeter fences for the purposes of pupil safeguarding.

All schools are responsible for the health, safety and welfare of their pupils and staff. The associated statutory responsibilities on school employers are set out in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and regulations made under the act.

To help schools effectively manage their estate, in respect of perimeter fencing, the Department for Education has recently published a ‘Good estate management for schools’ manual. This provides advice for those who have responsibility for overseeing or managing school’s estates, and it can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/good-estate-management-for-schools/maintaining-the-estate.