Raac schools Scotland: Tory ministers were sent decisive Dunblane school Raac report a month before ordering closures

Conservative peer lays bare pivotal role played by concrete plank collapse in Scotland

A Tory minister has suggested the Westminster Government started considering closing English schools at the end of July after receiving a key report about a fallen Raac plank in Dunblane.

The incident is understood to have been the first of two which led to a recommendation to education secretary Gillian Keegan to close schools.

She was still considering the advice when a third problem with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) at a school in England prompted her to decide on August 31 that more than 100 schools should shut.

A taped off section inside Parks Primary School in Leicester which has been impacted by the sub-standard reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac). PIC: Jacob King/PA Wire

The closure of English schools has sparked widespread concerns about the structural safety of in public buildings containing the “bubbly” concrete across the UK.

Scottish ministers have previously complained they were not informed about the incident at Queen Victoria School in Dunblane, which is run by the Ministry of Defence. It has been reported it happened in spring, with engineers sent north to assess the faulty Raac plank in May.

SNP education secretary Jenny Gilruth has confirmed she was told the issue in Dunblane was one of three collapses which prompted Ms Keegan’s shock decision.

Baroness Barran, the minister for the school system in England, appeared to confirm on Tuesday that a decisive report by experts on what they had found at the Queen Victoria School had been received at the end of July, a month before the decision to close English schools.

Giving evidence to the education committee in the Commons, she said: “Right at the end of July, I think it might have been the last day of term or the first day of the holidays, we as ministers received advice relating to an incident that had happened in a school in the UK, but not in England, where a Raac plank had failed that had been wedged, and therefore didn’t crash to the floor.

"And in the previous incidents that we are aware of, the planks always came down, so it was much more difficult to assess, if you like, the quality or the grade or the deterioration of the Raac.

"So in this case, the plank was suspended. We were able to send up our technical experts. They spent two days there examining and assessing the state of the plank and judged that it would not have been graded as critical prior to its failure.

"Prior to that, our advice to schools had been that if you have Raac graded as critical, you need to vacate that area … so that was the first incident that we were aware of which made us question whether that advice was still appropriate.”

Baroness Barran said the incident was followed by another similar one “in a commercial setting”, which was also reported to the UK Government in July, followed by a third at a school in England.

She said: "As junior ministers, we took the initial decision. We then did some further technical investigations, the advice went to the Secretary of State, I think it was the third week in August [August 21], and that was when she took the decision, which was obviously finally ratified through Number 10.”