THE number of Scottish schools impacted by Raac concrete has risen to 40, the First Minister confirmed.
In response to Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who asked when the Scottish Government first became aware of the issue, Humza Yousaf said they had been “proactive” in its approach.
The FM also said that nine out of 40 NHS buildings surveyed so far in Scotland have been found to have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac).
The number of Scottish schools impacted has been growing, with the figure previously at 37 earlier in the week.
It comes as Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross raised the pilot scheme in the north east of Scotland where some minor crimes will no longer be investigated by police.
Raac is less durable than concrete, as well as being cheaper to produce, and is prone to collapse when wet, with a life expectancy of little more than 30 years. It was used in the construction of various buildings between the 1950s and mid-1990s.
When the issue was raised at FMQs, Sarwar (below) also called on the Scottish Government to publish a full list of schools impacted.
The FM told MSPs that the Scottish Government had been aware of the issue of Raac for years.
He said: “That’s why, for example, we ensured that our education leaders had the appropriate guidance from the Institute of Structural Engineers. We have been proactive over that period, particularly the Education Secretary, particularly in relation to her discussions with local authorities, to ensure we have a full understanding of the picture.
“I can confirm that we have further information from local authorities that 40 schools have been identified that have Raac in them. Of course, the appropriate mitigations have been put in place.”
The FM added that the Scottish Government will work with local authorities to ensure that a full list of schools impacted will be published.
In response, Sarwar said the issue went beyond schools.
“We know that 255 NHS buildings across Scotland are being surveyed for suspected Raac,” he added.
“So can I ask the First Minister when the survey will be completed and when we’ll have a complete list of all public bodies affected?”
Yousaf said that a major study on NHS buildings is “very much underway” to assess how many of the 255 buildings with “characteristics consistent with the presence of Raac” was well underway.
“Nine buildings have now been confirmed to contain Raac, that’s from 40 buildings that have been surveyed,” he said.
He added: “We will work with partners, not just local authorities, but NHS boards and others, to see how much of that information can be put out publicly. I hope Anas Sarwar and others will appreciate that that will be an evolving picture as these surveys continue to progress.”
Elsewhere, Ross claimed that the FM wouldn’t let the police pilot not to investigate some minor crimes go ahead in Glasgow.
Yousaf hit back at the Scottish Tory leader’s “absolute nonsense” claim and said he was trying to turn “one community against another”, adding that the pilot was an operational matter for Police Scotland.
Ross also claimed that the Scottish Government is imposing funding cuts on Police Scotland, just days after a pay rise offer with the force was agreed.
Yousaf told the Scottish Tory leader to correct the record, adding that the resource budget had been increased, and any suggestion of a funding cut was “simply untrue”.
Ross (below) refused, and said the FM should correct the record, to which Yousaf said the Scottish Tory leader was chasing “cheap political headlines”.
Referencing Ross’s support of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, Yousaf said he had “no credibility whatsoever” on public finances in a fiery exchange.
Meanwhile, the FM confirmed a public inquiry will go ahead into disgraced surgeon Professor Sam Eljamel after an NHS Tayside report found concerns about him were not acted on with the “urgency they deserved”.
And, in response to a question from Liam Kerr on the poverty-related attainment gap increasing, Yousaf said the Scottish Tory MSP could use his “minuscule influence” in his party to call for the two-child limit to be scrapped or reverse a number of Westminster Tory policies to tackle poverty in Scotland.
The FM jibed that Kerr should “wipe away the crocodile tears” as reversing Tory measures would lift 30,000 children in Scotland out of poverty.
