Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support the Government plans to provide for the removal of asbestos in maintained schools that are to be converted into academies.

The Government takes the issue of asbestos in schools very seriously and is supporting those in schools and responsible bodies who have the legal responsibility for safely managing asbestos in their schools.

The Department provides funding to schools to help them keep their school buildings in a good state of repair. Between 2015 and 2018 this investment will total £4.2 billion and schools and responsible bodies are able to use this funding to remove asbestos where that is appropriate.

For maintained schools, the local authority as responsible body receives an annual allocation of capital funding to repair and upgrade existing buildings. Local authorities are expected to treat fairly those schools considering conversion to an academy and to honour any commitments of capital funding that they have made, in respect of building projects at those schools.

Following conversion, a school can be part of a larger multi-academy trust, a smaller multi-academy trust or a standalone academy. Larger multi-academy trusts (MATs) have access to annual formulaic school condition allocations (SCA), which they can pass on to their constituent schools to address any serious asbestos concerns. For stand-alone academies and academies in smaller multi academy trusts, funding is available through the condition improvement fund (CIF) where they bid for capital funding. As set out in the guidance for prospective bidders, the highest priority is given to health and safety issues due to the poor condition of buildings, including emergency asbestos removal.