Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of officials in her Department who are working in roles relating to the management of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete were not working on school capital projects prior to 4 September 2023.

The department will allocate whatever resources necessary to support schools and colleges to manage and remove RAAC from their buildings. Every school and college with confirmed RAAC is assigned dedicated support from the department’s team of 80 caseworkers who work with them to assess what support is needed and implement mitigations plans that are right for them. Schools and colleges with confirmed RAAC are also being supported by the department’s ten Regional Directors and their teams across the country.

Project delivery teams are on site to support schools and colleges to minimise the disruption to teaching. A bespoke plan is put in place to ensure that each school and college receives the support that suits their circumstances. Project delivery, property, and technical experts are on hand to support schools to put face-to-face education measures in place.

Members of staff across the department work on RAAC across a range of policy and delivery areas as required. It is therefore not possible to give an accurate figure for numbers of staff working on RAAC.

An updated list of schools and colleges with confirmed cases of RAAC as at 16 October 2023 was published on 19 October and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-raac-management-information. This link contains a summary of the number of schools and colleges with confirmed RAAC and the status of education in place at these schools and colleges at the specified date.