Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools in England have Aluminium Composite Material cladding on them.

The information requested in not held centrally.

Following the Grenfell tragedy the Department contacted all bodies responsible for safety in school buildings in England, instructing them to carry out checks to identify any buildings which had Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding of potential concern, so that they could be further investigated and any risks managed and dealt with appropriately and promptly. This work focused on identifying schools with ACM over 18 metres or with residential accommodation, and on student residential buildings over 18 metres with ACM.

The safety of pupils, students and staff remains the Department’s highest priority. Since the Grenfell fire, the Department has worked closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, as part of the cross-government programme to remediate buildings with potentially dangerous cladding. That approach will continue, and we welcome the package of measures to improve building safety standards announced on 20 January by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Department is already looking at ways to ensure the education estate complies fully with the updated advice to building owners, announced as part of that package, on actions they should take in relation to cladding.