Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools built or extended through funding from the Education Funding Agency since 2010 have (a) had sprinkler systems fitted and (b) had cladding installed; and what steps will be taken in respect of school buildings identified as not being compliant with fire safety standards.

The Vaughan Primary School, Harrow, has been delivered by the ESFA through the Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP). We have completed checks of schools delivered through this programme and confirm that the cladding on this school is not Aluminium Composite Material (ACM).

The Department is undertaking an analysis of all school buildings, seeking information from all bodies responsible for schools, to identify those where external cladding has been used (and its type) for schools with four storeys or more. This exercise will cover school buildings of all ages, whether they have been funded through DfE central programmes or not.

All schools must comply with strict building and fire safety regulations. It has always been the case that where a fire risk assessment required for any new building recommends sprinklers are installed to keep children safe, they must be fitted.

The Department holds information on PSBP schools as these are managed centrally by the ESFA. Of the 260 schools in phase one of the PSBP, 75 schools include sprinkler systems. As schools under phase two of the PSBP are still in the early design stage, it is not yet clear which may require sprinklers at this time.

Until recently, schools developed under the Free Schools programme were managed by the individual Free School proposer groups, via their appointed building contractors. Due to this, the Department does not hold information on the number of Free School buildings with and without sprinklers installed.

All schools must have robust safety plans to follow in the event of a fire and have very strong safety features in case a fire breaks out. This includes the fact that they are not occupied overnight and are generally low rise with multiple exit routes.