CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

EDUCATION – RAAC IN SCHOOLS & THE PROACTIVE DfE - 04 September 2023

EDUCATION – RAAC IN SCHOOLS & THE PROACTIVE DfE - 04 September 2023

Sir Julian Lewis: Thank you for calling a state-educated Conservative Member, Madam Deputy Speaker.

May I, through the Secretary of State, thank [Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education] Baroness Barran, who reached out immediately to me, together with a highly competent senior official, when this problem arose in one of my local schools this March? Not only did they do that, but they seized the opportunity to encourage a resending of the questionnaire to the network of schools, through the contact that I had with one of my local headteachers. I have rarely, in 26 years in this House, seen a Department so proactive on an issue as this Department has been on this one, and I thank it for that.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Gillian Keegan): I thank my right hon. Friend, from one state-educated person to another. It is true that we have taken action quickly, but Baroness Barran, in particular, has been working on this since way before I was in the Department and has done an amazing job. I thank him for recognising that. She has really pushed us to make sure that we get additional information, get the evidence and have all the surveys back, so that we know, unlike most other places, where RAAC is in our schools. When I was tasked with the new evidence, I could identify exactly which schools were impacted immediately because of all the work that she had done.]