Local Authority awareness of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC): EIR release

Information requested

1. On Friday 1st September, in response to reports about the number of schools in Scotland that are affected by the presence of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC), the Cabinet Secretary for Education told BBC Scotland that “The total number of schools in Scotland affected is 35, so a relatively small number in comparison to the overall school estate which is around 2,500 schools. Our schools are safe. It's really important to say our local authorities have sought to provide me with reassurances throughout the course of the last few months." Please provide me with a copy of these reassurances provided by local authorities since January 2023 as described by the Cabinet Secretary.

2. Please provide a copy of all documents which discuss the Government being made aware of the UK Government’s decision to close schools on 31st August 2023 due to the presence of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC), what steps the Scottish Government should take, whether the Government is aware of how many schools in Scotland have RAAC and the process used to determine the figure that the Cabinet Secretary gave BBC Scotland on Friday 1st September. Please include all correspondence between ministers, Special Advisors, the media office and civil servants and any relevant minutes of meetings held over the course of the 31st August and 1st September 2023.”

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under
FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Response to your request

Part 1:

I can confirm that the Scottish Government holds information falling within the scope of your request. All information held that is in scope, with the exception of exempt material, is attached in the Annex to this letter.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

Scottish Government officials work closely with the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES), Scottish Heads Of Property Services (SHOPS) network and COSLA on school estate issues. During the period specified, they have regularly attended the SHOPS network meetings to discuss RAAC within the school estate.

In April 2023, the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) published further guidance on the critical risk factors associated with RAAC panel construction. Scottish Government officials shared this guidance and additional background on RAAC with the ADES and SHOPS networks in early May.

Following this, the Scottish Government issued RAAC school assessment surveys to all local authorities via the SHOPS network in July this year. Scottish Futures Trust are collating and managing these returns on the Scottish Government’s behalf and have now received responses from all local authorities. Scottish Futures Trust continue to engage closely with local authorities on the detail of the survey outcomes.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills met the COSLA Resources Spokesperson, Councillor Katie Hagmann, on 31 August and was provided with reassurance that any outstanding local authority RAAC school assessment surveys returns would be addressed immediately.

Part 2:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under the exception at regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs a public authority may refuse a request for information if it is 'manifestly unreasonable'. The Scottish Information Commissioner's guidance on the regulation 10(4)(b) exception at:http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Law/EIRs/EIRsExceptions.aspx says that there may “be instances where it is appropriate for the Commissioner to consider the proportionality of the burden on the public authority in terms of the costs and resources involved in dealing with a request when considering the application of this exception”.

You may wish to note that having conducted searches for the correspondence that you have requested, we have found that your request would cover a substantial volume of information. Therefore, you may wish to consider resubmitting your FOISA request with a significantly reduced scope. Please note that I cannot guarantee at this stage that a refined request would not fall within the cost exemption. You may also find it useful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’.

However, to be as helpful as possible, we can provide an answer to your question on whether the Scottish Government is aware of how many schools in Scotland have RAAC. Currently, RAAC has been identified in 37 public schools across 16 local authorities. You may be interested to know that a list of the 16 local authorities, where RAAC has been identified within some of their schools was published in the following news release. COSLA have confirmed that safety is the central consideration and there is robust guidance which is followed by every local authority to ensure these settings are safe for the young people, staff and the public to be in.

On behalf of the Scottish Government, Scottish Futures Trust have been closely engaging with local authorities in relation to RAAC in schools for some time. As previously mentioned, in July we commissioned RAAC school assessment surveys to all local authorities. This is the process that was used to determine the figure that the Cabinet Secretary gave BBC Scotland on 1 September.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202300374568 - Information Released - ANNEX

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1 page PDF

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EIR 202300374568 - Information Released - Enclosure 1

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