Government has adopted sticking-plaster approach to school building safety, says NAO – UK politics live | Politics
Keegan says her dig at people doing nothing about Raac was not aimed at Sunak
Jeremy Vine starts by playing a clip of Gillian Keegan’s TV outburst yesterday.
Q: You have apologised. But what did you mean?
Keegan says she was annoyed the interviewer seemed to be pinning all the blame on her. But Raac has been around for years, she says. And she thinks the department has been doing a good job. It has been monitoring Raac for a long time.
Q: But this was installed in the 60s and 70s with a 30-year lease.
It was a 50-year lease, says Keegan. But it was changed to a 30-year lease.
Q: But why have you waited for so long?
The Institute of Structural Engineers says Raac is okay to use, but it needs to be monitored, she says. She says in March 2020 the Department for Education started surveying schools to see if they had Raac. Where they were unsure, structural engineers were sent in.
What changed over the summer is that there were three cases of Raac failing, she says.
That’s what happens if you leave 30-year concrete for 60 years, Vine says.
Q: Jonathan Slater said yesterday that when he was at DfE they knew hundreds of schools needed to be rebuilt. But Rishi Sunak cut the budget. So, when you were talking about people sitting on their bum doing nothing, were you referring to Sunak?
No, says Keegan.
Q: Were you amazed at the decision taken by Sunak?
Keegan says she has looked at the issued in detail. Governments tend to build.
She says Sunak announced a programme to rebuild 500 schools even though there were in the middle of Covid. And he has funded a pay rise for teachers, and he has increased funding for childcare.
Key events
Q: Are you trying to make a splash to be ready for a leadership contest?
No, says Keegan. And she says she would not try to do it that way.
Vine reads a question from a listening suggesting a teacher who swore would be sacked.
Keegan says she apologised. But she says she does not think people should be sacked for swearing.
Q: Do you have the full list of schools affected by Raac?
No, says Keegan. She says some that were assessed as non-critical have been moved to critical.
There are others were Raac is suspected. They are being surveyed.
And she says 5% of organisations that were meant to respond to a survey about Raac in buildings have not yet responded. She says she has written to them again, and asked them to respond by the end of the week.
Keegan says she decided to change the rules over the summer after a ceiling with Raac in it, that had been judged non-critical, suddenly collapsed. There was no other explanation, she says.
With 100 other ceilings in a similar state, she says she could not risk not taking precautions.
Vine suggests that, when Keegan complained about others doing nothing about this problem, she must have been talking about her predecessors.
Keegan does not accept that. They did act, she claims.
She says she thinks the DfE has done an excellent job. And no one has acknowledged that, she says. That is what she meant.
Keegan says her dig at people doing nothing about Raac was not aimed at Sunak
Jeremy Vine starts by playing a clip of Gillian Keegan’s TV outburst yesterday.
Q: You have apologised. But what did you mean?
Keegan says she was annoyed the interviewer seemed to be pinning all the blame on her. But Raac has been around for years, she says. And she thinks the department has been doing a good job. It has been monitoring Raac for a long time.
Q: But this was installed in the 60s and 70s with a 30-year lease.
It was a 50-year lease, says Keegan. But it was changed to a 30-year lease.
Q: But why have you waited for so long?
The Institute of Structural Engineers says Raac is okay to use, but it needs to be monitored, she says. She says in March 2020 the Department for Education started surveying schools to see if they had Raac. Where they were unsure, structural engineers were sent in.
What changed over the summer is that there were three cases of Raac failing, she says.
That’s what happens if you leave 30-year concrete for 60 years, Vine says.
Q: Jonathan Slater said yesterday that when he was at DfE they knew hundreds of schools needed to be rebuilt. But Rishi Sunak cut the budget. So, when you were talking about people sitting on their bum doing nothing, were you referring to Sunak?
No, says Keegan.
Q: Were you amazed at the decision taken by Sunak?
Keegan says she has looked at the issued in detail. Governments tend to build.
She says Sunak announced a programme to rebuild 500 schools even though there were in the middle of Covid. And he has funded a pay rise for teachers, and he has increased funding for childcare.
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, is about to be interviewed by Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. This morning the Daily Telegraph has her “fighting for survival”.
What should be equally worrying for her is that, for the opposition, she is becoming a figure of fun. Once politicians lose their credibility, it can be hard to get it back.
This is from the Labour party.
And this is from the TUC.
Steven Morris
The children’s commissioner for Wales, Rocio Cifuentes, has criticised the Welsh government’s response to the Raac crisis.
Schools across Wales are being checked for Raac but Jeremy Miles, the Welsh education minister, said yesterday it was “regrettable” that the UK government had not shared what it knew about the problem with the devolved nations earlier.
Cifuentes said:
This situation has the potential to cause significant anxiety to children and their parents. Statements issued by the minister so far don’t give families the clarity they need on what this means for them or the next steps for their school, in a way that is easy to understand.
What children and their families need to hear is not a blame game but details of the extent of the problem, what exactly will happen over the next few weeks and reassurance that schools are safe. It is unacceptable that this situation has been allowed to develop to the point of disrupting children’s education and causing worry to families.
Rishi Sunak told cabinet that it was right to “prioritise safety” by closing schools affected by the Raac concrete crisis, the prime minister’s spokesperson told journalists.
At this morning’s lobby briefing, the spokesperson said:
The prime minister provided a short update on the government’s approach to Raac in school settings.
He said it was right to prioritise safety and take a proactive approach of doing everything possible to minimise disruption in the small portion of schools which are affected.
He said parents should be reassured that the vast majority of schools are not impacted by Raac and that mitigations either are or are being put in place for those already identified, meaning face-to face-education was either uninterrupted or the impacts have been kept to the bare minimum.
The spokesperson also said Sunak chaired a ministerial meeting yesterday on the extent of Raac in public buildings generally, although the minister leading on this issue is Jeremy Quin from the Cabinet Office, the spokesperson said.
As Kiran Stacey and Helena Horton reported in an overnight story, the government is announcing changes to planning rules that will get rid of the de facto ban on new onshore wind turbines being installed in England. (Theoretically is not a total ban, but in practice it amounts to one, because the rules introduced by David Cameron mean a windfarm can be blocked on the basis of an objection from just one resident.)
The move is intended to avert a government defeat when MPs debate the energy bill this afternoon. Ministers are at risk of losing because more than 20 Conservatives are backing an amendment tabled by Sir Alok Sharma, the former Cop26 president, getting rid of the ban.
The government has not yet published its compromise proposal, but ITV’s Anushka Asthana says she thinks it will be enough to see off the rebellion.
Sounds to me like the govt has done just about enough to quell the rebellion on onshore wind today. The planning restriction that allows just one person to object and stop a development is going (that made it effective ban on onshore wind). But still requires council consent
— Anushka Asthana (@AnushkaAsthana) September 5, 2023
Mid Bedfordshire byelection to take place on 19 October
The byelection in Mid Bedfordshire caused by the resignation of Nadine Dorries will take place on Thursday 19 October, Central Bedfordshire, the council organising it, has announced.
Dorries had a majority of 24,664 in 2019 and, if the Tories were to lose, it would be the biggest byelection defeat in terms of number of voters (rather than vote share) in history. Pippa Crerar wrote a preview of the contest here.
Hunt says autumn statement to take place on Wednesday 22 November
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has announced that the autumn statement will take place on Wednesday 22 November. This may well be the second last “fiscal event” (to use the Treasury term for a mega-spending or tax announcement) before the general election. There will also be a budget in the spring. With the general election expected in October or November next year, Hunt may never get round to an 2024 autumn statement.
In making his announcement, Hunt also stresses that the autumn statement will be accompanied by a report from the Office for Budget Responsibility. This is routine, and something that normally never needs highlighting. But Hunt may be keen to point out that he will not be following the example of his predecessor, Kwasi Kwarteng, who delivered an autumn statement last year (the so-called mini-budget) without letting the OBR do an assessment. That was one of several reasons why it blew up, ending Liz Truss’s premiership.
Birmingham city council, the largest local authority in the country, has in effect declared itself bankrupt after issuing a section 114 notice signalling it cannot balance its budget without help, Jessica Murray reports.
Greg Hands, the Conservative party chair, claims that this shows the Labour party can’t manage public money properly – even though Conservative-run councils, like Northamptonshire and Thurrock, have also had similar problems.
My regular reminder that when Labour run something, they run it badly.
And once again, there is “no money left” at Britain’s largest Council.
Birmingham City Council ‘effectively bankrupt’ – BBC News https://t.co/C8yKAk6hDs
— Greg Hands (@GregHands) September 5, 2023
Labour’s Wes Streeting suggests more flexible working in NHS might allow hospitals to improve weekend cover
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, told the Today programme this morning that Labour would support the government if it introduces a “Martha’s rule” in England to make it easier for patients and their families who believe their concerns are not being taken seriously by medical staff to get a second medical opinion. Jamie Grierson has the story here.
In his interview, Streeting also said that Labour would consider whether encouraging more flexible working in the NHS might allow hospitals to provide better cover at weekends.
Asked if he was concerned about the number of senior staff available at weekends, Streeting said he was worried about “the Monday to Friday culture that sees patients potentially at greater risk over the weekends”. He went on:
The last Labour government delivered the shortest waiting times, the highest patient satisfaction in the history of the NHS, but I also talk to NHS staff who increasingly want more flexible working.
And I wonder if there’s the opportunity to have the best of both worlds here, which is seven-day care and consistent care right throughout the week for patients, at the same time as offering NHS staff greater flexibility as they juggle their own family lives.
Those are some of the reform-driven conversations that I’m having right across the NHS workforce at the moment.
Streeting said Labour would say more on this topic before the general election.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/05/schools-concrete-raac-building-safety-jeremy-hunt-conservatives-labour-uk-politics-latest-news Government has adopted sticking-plaster approach to school building safety, says NAO – UK politics live | Politics
