The Government has said more than 100 schools need to close due
to safety concerns with RAAC concrete. This will present the
opportunity for environmental sustainability concerns to be
addressed in tandem during the rebuild process, spurring
Government progress on its environmental commitments.
The education estate – including schools, colleges and
universities – is currently the public sector’s largest emitter
of carbon from buildings. Last year, the Environmental Audit
Committee (EAC) asked the National Audit Office (NAO) to
undertake a study on the sustainability of the Department for
Education (DfE).
The NAO’s report was published on 28 June. Within its report, the
NAO identified that while the DfE had made commitments to improve
environmental sustainability, the funding allocated to date
failed to match the ambition of these commitments. It also found
that there was a lack of awareness within the Department as to
which of its current schemes are having an impact on reducing
carbon emissions.
Alongside this report, the NAO published a further report on
‘Condition of school buildings’. On publication of the two
reports, the NAO recommended that the DfE considered how its
sustainability ambitions can be achieved when addressing the
condition of the school estate.
On Wednesday 18 October, the EAC will be holding a one-off
evidence session with a DfE Minister and officials to explore in
greater detail the NAO’s findings on the environmental
sustainability of the Department.
In advance of the evidence session, the Committee would like to
hear the views of stakeholders on the findings of the NAO report
on sustainability of the Department for Education. Comments may
be submitted formally via the Committee’s evidence portal,
or may be emailed to the Committee ateacom@parliament.uk: they
should be submitted not later than Friday 6 October.
Environmental Audit Committee Chairman, Rt Hon MP, said:
“The absolute priority is making schools safe in a timely manner
to avoid any further unnecessary disruption for students. Over
100 schools have recently been told that either they must
partially close, or close entirely, amid safety concerns with
RAAC concrete. The number of schools with RAAC concrete, as set
out in the NAO’s report on the condition of school buildings, is
significantly higher.
“The rebuilding programme should incorporate energy efficiency as
standard to enable new buildings to be decarbonised. Currently
the education estate emits the largest volume of carbon emissions
in the public estate, and there is a key opportunity to make
these new, safe buildings net zero compliant to stem damaging
emissions.”
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