Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to her Statement of 17 July 2017, Official Report, column 565, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of changes to the main capital budget on fire safety in schools.

As my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, set out in her oral statement of 17 July 2017, the government will be investing an additional £1.3 billion in core schools funding in 2018-19 and 2019-20. This additional investment will be funded in full from efficiencies and savings within the department’s budget. As part of this, the department will make savings of £315 million from healthy pupils capital and a further £105 million from unallocated departmental capital.

These plans do not include any savings from the schools maintenance budget, which is worth £1.4bn in 2017-18, and they will not affect the department’s ability to ensure school buildings are safe, which remains a priority. Where remedial work is deemed necessary for schools to remain safe for continued use, we will work with local authorities and other responsible bodies to ensure that lack of financial resources will not prevent it going ahead.