Some schools affected by concrete safety fears not yet contacted – and minister unsure how many will shut
Not all schools impacted by concrete safety fears have been contacted and it is not clear how many will have to shut fully, a minister has admitted.
Schools minister Nick Gibb said in most cases “just a few buildings” or rooms within the affected schools will have to shut but “in some cases it will be the whole school”.
Asked whether all affected schools have been contacted, Mr Gibb told Sky News: “The vast majority have, we’ve been calling them yesterday. But there is a few more that we’re calling today.”
However, asked for a number on the full closures, he said: “We don’t know yet.”
The government announced on Thursday that around 104 schools or “settings” in England found with concrete prone to collapse are set to be closed or disrupted – on top of 52 that have already been affected this year.
Labour is calling on ministers to “come clean” and publish the full list of schools that will be impacted, as they have not yet been publicly named.
Mr Gibb said the government intended to do that “in due course” but he wanted parents to be informed by the school before they read about it in the media.
He also suggested more schools could be affected as not all building surveys have been completed.
The type of concrete forcing the closures is Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete, known as RAAC.
Ministers are facing questions over why they made the announcement just days before the start of the new school term.
Minister ‘doesn’t know’ how many schools will have to close – politics latest
Mr Gibb said “new evidence” over the safety of RAAC emerged over the summer which prompted the government to change its guidance.
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Pupils will be out of school ‘for short period’
Previously remediation was required when the RAAC was in critical condition, but Mr Gibb said the Department for Education (DfE) is now taking the “cautious approach” that all RAAC should be removed.
Mr Gibb said: “In most cases it will be just a few buildings or a few rooms, or just a cupboard. But in some cases it will be the whole school. And in those circumstances we will be finding alternative accommodation.”
He insisted in cases where schools need to shut, children will only be out of face-to-face education for a “short period of time” – for an average of about six days.
And he said all costs of the remediation will be covered by the government.
“We’ve made it very clear we will cover all capital costs,” Mr Gibb said.
“So if in the worst-case scenario, we need portacabins in the school estate for an alternative accommodation, we will cover all those costs.”
Schools minister left parents with four key unanswered questions
As schools scramble to put new safety measures in place, many parents will be asking why it has taken the government so long to wake up to the gravity of this problem.
Education minister Nick Gibb told Sky News the government was taking a cautious approach to the problem of RAAC (reinforced aerated autoclaved concrete) in schools.
However, many would question the sincerity of those comments as the government has known about the risks of this type of concrete for years and was even told in September 2022 that the material was life-expired and liable to collapse.
Although Mr Gibb clarified that government will be paying for alternative accommodation for schools where necessary and that it would publish the full list of affected schools in due course, he left parents with four key questions.
Firstly, how many schools will have to close entirely? The minister couldn’t answer that question despite speculation it could be as many as 30.
Second, are all schools safe? Mr Gibb insisted they were, but the government is yet to receive all the data on RAAC in schools as not all schools have been checked.
Thirdly, although Mr Gibb guaranteed the list of affected schools would be published, he did not go as far as to say when that would be – leaving parents worried their children’s schools could be affected without them knowing.
And finally, the minister explained that not all schools impacted by RAAC had been informed yet, meaning there are schools that remain in the dark about whether they may need to be fully or partially closed.
With term beginning in a matter of days, the timing of these revelations come at a moment when Rishi Sunak and his government were hoping for a reset.
Mini reshuffle completed and refreshed from parliamentary recess, Mr Sunak will be frustrated by this false start ahead of the return to schools and Westminster.
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Government ‘not being truthful’
Labour condemned the government for delay and inaction.
Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said safety concerns about RAAC have been known for years and blamed the issue on Tory “incompetence and neglect”.
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Steve Reed “You can’t deliver first rate education in second rate buildings.”
He told Sky News: “We know, and so do government ministers, that five years ago in 2018, there was a school in Gravesend in North Kent that collapsed because it had this kind of concrete.
“They had a report from the Department for Education itself just last December telling them the situation was critical at that point.
“In the last two years, my colleague Bridget Phillipson (shadow education secretary) has raised this issue in questions and debates in parliament over 150 times.
“So if they’re telling you they didn’t know this was a problem, they’re not being truthful and they should have taken action the beginning of the summer holidays.”
It’s like The Godfather, one reformed drug trafficker tells me.
The mythical gangster film centred on an organised crime dynasty locked in a transfer of power.
Communities in Scotland currently have a front row seat to a new war of violence, torture, and taunts as feuding drug lords and notorious families grapple for control of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There have been more than a dozen brutal attacks over the past six weeks – ranging from fire bombings to attacks on children and gun violence.
A firebomb attack in Scotland
Victims left for dead, businesses up in flames
Gangsters have filmed themselves setting fire to buildings and homes connected to the associates and relatives of their bitter rivals.
The main aim, they boast, is to “exterminate” the opposition.
The taunting footage, accompanied by the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group, has been plastered over social media as part of a deliberate game of goading.
A 12-year-old boy and 72-year-old woman were left for dead when teenagers wearing balaclavas burst into a home in north Glasgow.
Garages and businesses have gone up in flames. Shots were fired at an Edinburgh house.
Signals are being sent of who wants control of Scotland’s dark criminal underworld.
A firebomb attack that saw a man throw an incendiary device through a building window
The fire attack set to the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group
What’s caused the gang war?
The former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Graeme Pearson, explains how a “vacuum of leadership” is playing a part.
Last October, Glasgow-based cocaine kingpin Jamie Stevenson, known as The Iceman, was jailed after orchestrating a £100m cocaine shipment stashed in banana boxes from South America.
The mob leader was one of Britain’s most wanted, running his business like another on-screen criminal enterprise: The Sopranos.
The 59-year-old fugitive went on the run before eventually being hunted and apprehended by police while out jogging in the Netherlands.
Jamie Stevenson. Pic: Police Scotland
Pic: Crown Office
‘Old scores to settle’
But paranoia was running rife about how this notorious gangster could be brought down. Was there a grass? Was it one of their own?
It further fuelled divisions and forced new alliances to be forged across Scotland’s organised criminal networks.
It wasn’t until The Iceman case came to court that it was revealed an encrypted messaging platform, known as EncroChat, had been infiltrated by law enforcement.
It ultimately led to Stevenson pleading guilty.
Ex-senior drug enforcement officer Mr Pearson told Sky News: “It is a complex picture because you have got people who are in prison who still want to have influence outside and look after what was their business.
“On the outside you’ve got wannabes who are coming forward, and they think this is an opportunity for them, and you have got others have old scores to settle that they could not settle when crime bosses were around.”
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Graeme Pearson
Mr Pearson describes a toxic mix swirling to create outbursts of violence unfolding in Scotland.
He concluded: “All that mixes together – and the greed for the money that comes from drugs, and from the kudos that comes from being a ‘main man’, and you end up with competition, violence, and the kind of incidents we have seen over the past four to six weeks.”
New wave of violence ‘barbaric’
Glasgow man Mark Dempster is a former addict, dealer, and drug smuggler who is now an author and respected counsellor helping people quit drinking and drugs.
He describes the “jostle for power” as not a new concept among Glasgow’s high profile gangland families.
Mark Dempster
“There is always going to be someone new who wants to control the markets. It is like The Godfather. There is no difference between Scotland, Albania, or India,” he said.
Mr Dempster suggests a shift in tactics in Glasgow and Edinburgh in recent weeks, with 12-year-olds being viciously attacked in the middle of the night.
“It is barbaric. When young people, children, get pulled into the cross fire. It takes it to a different level.
“At least with the old mafiosa they had an unwritten rule that no children, no other family members. You would deal directly with the main people that were your opposition.”
Police Scotland is racing to get control of the situation, but declined to speak to Sky News about its ongoing operation.
It has been suggested 100 officers are working on this case, with “arrests imminent”.
But this is at the very sharp end of sophisticated criminal empires where the police are not feared, there are fierce vendettas and, clearly, power is up for grabs.
UK
Laws may need to be bolstered to crack down on exploitation of child ‘influencers’, senior MP suggests
Laws may need to be strengthened to crack down on the exploitation of child “influencers”, a senior Labour MP has warned.
Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, technology and innovation committee, said parts of the Online Safety Act – passed in October 2023 – may already be “obsolete or inadequate”.
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Experts have raised concerns that there is a lack of provision in industry laws for children who earn money through brand collaborations on social media when compared to child actors and models.
This has led to some children advertising in their underwear on social media, one expert has claimed.
Those working in more traditional entertainment fields are safeguarded by performance laws, which strictly govern the hours a minor can work, the money they earn and who they are accompanied by.
The Child Influencer Project, which has curated the world’s first industry guidelines for the group, has warned of a “large gap in UK law” which is not sufficiently filled by new online safety legislation.
Official portrait of Chi Onwurah.
Pic: UK Parlimeant
The group’s research found that child influencers could be exposed to as many as 20 different risks of harm, including to dignity, identity, family life, education, and their health and safety.
Ms Onwurah told Sky News there needs to be a “much clearer understanding of the nature of child influencers ‘work’ and the legal and regulatory framework around it”.
She said: “The safety and welfare of children are at the heart of the Online Safety Act and rightly so.
“However, as we know in a number of areas the act may already be obsolete or inadequate due to the lack of foresight and rigour of the last government.”
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, innovation and technology, agreed that regulations “need to keep pace with the times”, with child influencers on social media “protected in the same way” as child actors or models.
“Liberal Democrats would welcome steps to strengthen the Online Safety Act on this front,” she added.
‘Something has to be done’
MPs warned in 2022 that the government should “urgently address the gap in UK child labour and performance regulation that is leaving child influencers without protection”.
They asked for new laws on working hours and conditions, a mandate for the protection of the child’s earnings, a right to erasure and to bring child labour arrangements under the oversight of local authorities.
However, Dr Francis Rees, the principal investigator for the Child Influencer Project, told Sky News that even after the implementation of the Online Safety Act, “there’s still a lot wanting”.
“Something has to be done to make brands more aware of their own duty of care towards kids in this arena,” she said.
Dr Rees added that achieving performances from children on social media “can involve extremely coercive and disruptive practices”.
“We simply have to do more to protect these children who have very little say or understanding of what is really happening. Most are left without a voice and without a choice.”
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The researcher pointed to one particular instance, in which children were advertising an underwear brand on social media.
She said: “The kids in the company’s own marketing material or their own media campaigns are either pulling up the band of the underwear underneath their clothing, or they’re holding the underwear up while they’re fully clothed.
“But whenever you look at any of the sponsored content produced by families with children – mum, dad, and child are in their underwear.”
Dr Rees said it is “night and day” in terms of how companies are behaving when they have responsibility for the material, versus “the lack of responsibility once they hand it over to parents with kids”.
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