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962 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsWe intend to publish management information. As I say, the list that will be published this week will have the initial information about mitigations. We will publish more…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsActually, the portacabins of today are very well insulated, but I would advise the hon. Lady that any particular case should be referred to the Department. The school can come…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsAbsolutely not, and I would just like to point out to the hon. Gentleman that the Priority School Building programme schools were one third cheaper per square metre than those…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsI will look at the hon. Lady’s free special school, but we announced seven new free special schools in the summer holidays. This is very much part of our building of more places…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsI thank my hon. Friend for that, and also for all the work that he and his council have done—they have been exemplary in getting on top of this issue. On temporary buildings, I am…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsI made the point to a journalist earlier— an off-the-cuff remark after the interview had finished—but I was responding to the fact that, in effect, the journalist had interviewed…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsMy colleague Baroness Barran has written to those responsible bodies again and requested that they respond to the questionnaires by the end of the week. We will then need to…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsOne hundred per cent. The new information, which came as late as towards the end of August, is what made us take a different approach. I did not want to do that—it was the last…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsOf course, for parents and for children this was very difficult. I have said that if I could have done it any other way, I would have done so. But faced with the information I…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsAs I have mentioned, we have written to officials in Northern Ireland and offered to have meetings to pass on information and best practice and to work with them closely.04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsIt is the responsible body, not the schools, that is responding to the questionnaires. As the hon. Lady says, the schoolteachers are there to teach the children, but the…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsWe have done three building and conditions surveys, plus we have had the RAAC surveying and questionnaire programme, so we know a lot more than anybody has ever known, including…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsI cannot promise my right hon. Friend that that information will be contained in what is published this week—which is more likely to be about the schools and the mitigations that…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsI thank the hon. Lady for her maiden question. It is a little ill-informed. If the schools in Somerton and Frome are identified, she will have a “Dear colleague” letter; I will…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsWe have got the contracts for the portacabins. In a few days, we have actually stood up a helpline system and a caseworker system. I think the schools, working with the…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsWe have written to Northern Ireland officials and offered support. It is absolutely our priority to minimise remote learning as much as possible. The right hon. Gentleman is…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsI thank the right hon. Gentleman, but just so that he is aware, and actually so that all Members are aware, this was announced on Thursday and today is Monday. In that time, we…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsI am aware that, as the hon. Lady says, Leicester’s schools start a little earlier. However, the information on which we based our decision only really came forward at the end of…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsI can give the hon. Gentleman some good news. We are going to be funding schools more than ever before: £60 billion a year, and the overall capital budget, as I have said, is £19…04 Sept 2023HANSARD Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education SettingsIf there are schools in the hon. Lady’s area, they will have been identified and we will be working with a caseworker to mitigate those as soon as possible; if there are suspected…04 Sept 2023