Extent of RAAC concrete in Scottish schools not yet known

The Scottish authorities has said it is inactive trying to found however galore schools incorporate collapse-risk concrete.

Housing Minister Paul McLennan said councils crossed the state were carrying retired assessments, with each expected to study backmost by adjacent week.

He besides said helium was alert of 2 schools wherever information enactment was being done.

The Scottish authorities has said that wherever it is found, remedial enactment could see the closure of impacted rooms oregon sections of the gathering and the usage of temporary, modular proviso for pupils to guarantee the continuity of education.

It has besides stressed that pupils volition not beryllium taught successful the parts of buildings wherever the factual is considered a risk.

Reinforced autoclaved aerated factual (RAAC) is simply a lightweight factual that was utilized successful roofs, floors and walls betwixt the 1950s and 1990s.

It is simply a cheaper alternate to modular factual and due to the fact that it's aerated, oregon "bubbly", it is little durable with a constricted lifespan of astir 30 years.

The Health and Safety Executive says RAAC is present beyond its lifespan and whitethorn "collapse with small oregon nary notice", with a collapsed beam implicit the summertime making the UK authorities alert that much schools successful England were astatine hazard than had antecedently been thought.

Mr McLennan said it was an contented the Scottish authorities took "very seriously" and that a ministerial radical had been acceptable up erstwhile RAAC issues were primitively raised.

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme, helium said: "There are a fewer schools already, 1 successful East Lothian, 1 successful West Lothian, that we're dealing with the section authorities astatine the moment.

"Local authorities are undertaking assessments and we're expecting that backmost adjacent week.

"Depending connected each concern we'll enactment intimately with the section authorities successful presumption of the enactment they request to bash to marque the schoolhouse safe. We've already done that successful East and West Lothian."

Asked whether determination were presently pupils successful immoderate Scottish schools that had faulty concrete, helium said: "No. There's been archetypal assessments carried retired and we identified the 2 schools and took immoderate actions.

"There person been immoderate classrooms that person been closed off."

BBC Scotland News has contacted each of Scotland's 32 councils to inquire whether immoderate of their schools contained RAAC.

Of those who person responded truthful far, West Lothian Council said it has been recovered astatine 5 superior schools and 4 assemblage centres.

It has besides been identified astatine 1 schoolhouse successful East Lothian and astatine Forres Academy successful Moray, wherever immoderate classrooms person been closed.

Two schools successful Highland person been identified and 1 successful Perth is being repaired.

Figures released to the Scottish Liberal Democrats successful May suggested that a full of 37 Scottish schools had been recovered that utilized the concrete.

They included 9 successful Dumfries and Galloway, 7 successful Aberdeen, six successful Clackmannanshire and 5 successful West Lothian.

There were 2 schools each successful Dundee, Highland and North Lanarkshire, and 1 schoolhouse each successful Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, East Lothian and Perth and Kinross.

Pupils astatine 2 superior schools successful Edinburgh were moved to impermanent classrooms successful July owed to the aforesaid issue.

Scottish Lib Dem person Alex Cole-Hamilton said the authorities should person done acold much implicit the summertime to measure the standard of the occupation and called for a ministerial statement.

He said: "We cannot person children being taught successful perchance unsafe buildings.

"Scottish Liberal Democrats would supply the funds needed for schools to urgently region this factual from their buildings and wide the backlog of schoolhouse repairs."