Scot Gov must respond as concrete beam assessed as low risk collapses

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today urged the Scottish Government to pull their heads out of the sand and explain what action they will take to tackle dangerous concrete in schools.

His comments come after UK schools minister Nick Gibb told the BBC’s Today programme that “over the summer” the government discovered a number of instances where RAAC that had been considered to be low risk “actually turned out to be unsafe”, including a beam which collapsed that had no external signs that it was a critical risk.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

“Ministers need to pull their heads out of the sand and take action. We now know from England that beams previously assessed as safe can still catastrophically collapse. Does Scotland have to have a tragedy before ministers take this seriously?

“This issue has been bubbling up for months and its ridiculous that the Scottish Government have failed to use the summer to rigorously assess the scale of the problem and get repairs underway.

“The government need to name the schools which have this concrete in place and say what measures are being taken to make them safe.

“We know that this potentially fatal concrete is above patients and students. It may be in other public buildings too. Ministers must set out how they will support cash-strapped schools, universities, hospitals and more to identify buildings at risk and cope with any necessary remedial works.”