Labour has forced a vote on the publication of long overdue data revealing to parents the condition and location of crumbling school buildings, that the Conservative government has admitted are “very likely” to collapse.
The party used a Humble Address motion in the House of Commons to force the publication information about the true state of England’s 24,000 school buildings almost two years after the School Buildings Condition Survey revealed “alarming” problems within the school estate.
The motion to reveal the condition and location of crumbling school buildings did not pass because Conservative MPs voted against it.
An internal government report leaked to the Observer newspaper in May 2022 revealed that school buildings in England are now in such disrepair they posed a “risk to life”.
The Department for Education subsequently raised the risk of school buildings collapsing from “critical” to “critical – very likely” in its annual report in December 2022, after an increase in serious structural issues being reported.
Despite assurances given to Labour in Parliament that further data detailing the precise condition of individual buildings would be published by the end of 2022, the Schools Minister backtracked refusing to give a date for publication when questioned in the House of Commons earlier this year.
The Conservatives have failed to get to grips with the crumbling state of school building since then Education Secretary Michael Gove gave a public apology for cancelling Labour’s Building Schools for the Future Programme.
Commenting before the debate, Stephen Morgan MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Schools said:
“For over a decade, the Conservatives have applied cut-price sticking plaster solutions and inefficient repairs to our nation’s schools.”
“And for over a year, Tory Ministers have known that school buildings have posed ‘a risk to life’, yet the government will still not tell parents or the public where dangerous school buildings are.
“Parents and school staff deserve to know whether their building is safe. That is why Labour will force Commons vote to reveal location and extent of crumbling school buildings.”
Commenting before the debate, Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said:
“For two years Conservative ministers have pulled the wool over parents’ eyes instead of telling them the truth about the real state of their children’s school buildings.
“Years of Conservative neglect of the school estate means that children face disruption to learning as well as direct threats to their safety – yet parents are still in the dark about the scale of the problem.
“That’s why Labour is giving Conservative MPs a choice today: they can show they’re on the side of parents, or a government that wants to keep families in the dark about the safety of school buildings.”
