Rob Corp
Live reporter

Hopefully we've covered most of the twists and turns in the ongoing story about reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete - or RAAC for short - and how its presence in schools and other public buildings has led to concerns about their safety.

No doubt there will be more on this throughout the rest of the day, and the remainder of the week, which we will bring you on the BBC News website.

You can keep up to date with the latest developments here and check out all our coverage on the topic page.

Today's writers were Jacqueline Howard, Gem O'Reilly and Ece Goksedef. The editors were me and Emily McGarvey.

We're two days into the new school year, and there remains plenty of questions about the presence of RAAC which has led to school buildings being shut in England and Wales. Here's what we learned today:

• Education Secretary Gillian Keegan had more questions to answer about the video that emerged of her swearing after an interview. She said she was frustrated that "the interviewer... was trying to pin everything on me"
• Keegan told the 5% of schools that have not filled in surveys about RAAC in their buildings, despite being asked since March, to "get off their backsides"
• Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was "unforgivable" that children were missing the start of term
• A school governor in Essex said the Department for Education had provided phone numbers for engineers, but none were available
• One of the biggest portable buildings firms said some temporary classrooms could be ready for use within days, but it would take six to seven months to build a bespoke classroom
• NHS England says it expects RAAC assessments for hospitals and other health buildings to be completed by the weekend

James Saunders, a head teacher in Essex, was asked about his school's situation and his response to Gillian Keegan's recent comments.

With regard to Keegan's swearing, he said: "We're not all monks are we?" But he added the government should "get the job done" before fishing for compliments.

Image source, PA Media

The scale of the RAAC problem may seem like it only came to light last week, but it's been an ongoing issue since 1994.

Let's take a look at how it's unfolded:

• 1994 - The government has been aware of public buildings containing RAAC since this time
• July 2018 - Part of the roof at a primary school in Kent collapsed, which was linked to RAAC
• December 2018 - The government started monitoring the conditions of affected buildings
• February 2021 - The Department of Education (DofE) issued a guide on how to identify RAAC in schools
• March 2022 - The DfE asked schools to fill in questionnaires on the use of RAAC in their buildings
• September 2022 - The DfE sent surveyors to schools to assess if RAAC was present
• December 2022 - In its annual report, the DfE said there was "a risk of collapse of one or more blocks in some schools"
• August 2023 - Three cases of collapses in public buildings which contain RAAC became known. The first was in a commercial setting and two were in schools
• August 2023 - The Health and Safety Executive announced: "Raac is now life-expired. It is liable to collapse with little or no notice."
• 31 August 2023 - The government changed the assessment of the risk that RAAC poses to building safety from non-critical to critical. It said there were 156 schools in England containing RAAC, 104 of which did not have mitigations in place

Fifty-four schools in Essex have been identified as containing RAAC concrete.

Essex County Council manages 15 of them and says they will mostly remain open, with the exception of one that will temporarily close.

Academy trusts are responsible for the remaining 39 schools.

"We are doing all we can to support schools to manage the situation and get affected children safely into schools," Essex County Council said.

Four schools in the Thurrock Council area and one in the city of Southend-on-Sea are built using the material.

• Read more on this here.

A Liberal Democrat councillor whose child attends Aston Manor academy in Birmingham says she feels "cheated" by the forced closure of school buildings which were built using RAAC.

Children at the school have been told the start of their academic year is being delayed until 11 September at the earliest.

"I feel cheated that we have a school like this and the building is not up to standard - why are other schools in posh areas not like this, why do we in Aston have to suffer?" Hussain told BBC Radio WM.

"To know that my son is going to come to school with walls like this does worry me," she said, adding "It's a man-made disaster waiting to happen."

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

Image source, PA Media

NHS England says “initial assessments” of hospitals and other sites which may contain RAAC should be completed by the end of the week.

In a letter sent to all NHS trusts today, health bosses said – if the use of the material is confirmed – organisations should have a “robust” plan in place to keep staff, patients and visitors safe.

This could include moving patients to other areas, the letter says.

Given the importance of the work, trusts must “assure themselves that the assessments made were sufficiently thorough," it says.

A total of 27 NHS sites had previously been identified across England built with RAAC concrete, with funding already secured for investigative and remedial work, according to the letter. Three of those sites have now eradicated RAAC from their buildings.

In May 2023, NHS trusts in England were asked to re-check their buildings for any sign of the material.

Bad news. The concrete crisis may go well beyond schools, as various types of public buildings were constructed with the potentially dangerous material, according to experts.

RAAC concrete was widely used in schools and colleges from the 1950s to the 1990s – and has also been used in courts and hospitals.

In fact, Prof Chris Goodier, of Loughborough University, said the material has been used in "much of the building stock of the country" in both the public and private sector.

We revealed yesterday that the government has ordered urgent tests on courts built in the 1990s after dangerous concrete was found on a site.

RAAC planks are thought to be present in some hospitals. In Scotland, more than 250 NHS buildings could have been built using the material. Health officials are currently working on an investigation to find out whether it is present.

Housing associations are also currently assessing whether the material has been used in the country's stock of social housing.

And a theatre has in Northampton has shut, after RAAC concrete was discovered.

Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) was mostly used in floors, walls and flat roofing between the 1950s and 1990s.

It is a lightweight material that is cheaper than standard concrete and is quicker to produce.

It is aerated, or "bubbly" and is less durable. It has a lifespan of around 30 years.

Structurally it is significantly different from traditional reinforced concrete.

It is susceptible to structural failure when exposed to moisture and can crumble under pressure. Watch and read here to understand how this happens.

RAAC is often coated with another material, such as bitumen on roofing panels. But this material can also degrade.

Image source, PA Media

The National Theatre on London's South Bank says there is "a small number of select backstage areas" where RAAC is present in the 1970s-era building.

Structural engineers are surveying those areas, a statement released by the theatre said, and initial indications show they are safe and do not currently require remedial works.

"We have always and will continue to take the safety of our staff and audiences very seriously," the statement added.

We've also heard from the Barbican Centre in the City of London, which confirmed there is no RAAC present in its buildings.

We've just been listening to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 show. Here's what she said:

• On being caught on camera using expletives yesterday, she "was a bit frustrated basically - the interviewer... was trying to pin everything on me"
• She accepted announcing schools must close buildings with RAAC in them right before term began was "the worst time to make the decision”
• Keegan was "very sorry for the timing of the decision"
• Asked why the government has not tackled this before, Keegan said the advice was “RAAC is ok to use but you have to check that RAAC is not deteriorating”
• Keegan said she was frustrated that 5% of schools have not filled in surveys despite asking since March and told them to "get off their backsides"
• Going back to swearing, Keegan admitted she "cannot claim to be perfect" and "is a real person”

The interview on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 show draws to a close by returning to Keegan being caught swearing in a so-called "hot mic" incident.

Vine says because Gillian Keegan is the education secretary, hearing her swear is a bit like hearing the Archbishop of Canterbury swearing.

"I feel like I've just been promoted," she quips.

Vine says if Keegan is "swearing like a trooper", there's no hope for cleaning up the language of school pupils, is there?

Keegan accepts that is true, but says she cannot claim to be perfect.

"I am a real person, I got elected aged 49, I spent 30 years doing lots of other things beforehand and I've never set myself up to be a perfect role-model," she says.

Jeremy Vine goes on to quote a teacher who contacted the show who says the government doesn't value a state education and doesn't fund it adequately.

He adds a quote from the teacher, saying: "School budgets are down 50% on what they were in 2010."

Keegan responds with: "I looked at this in great detail, I'm a very analytical person. In 2010 it was £35bn but as of this year it's nearly £60bn. It's more than it was in 2010."

Keegan goes onto say schools are really well funded, adding: "Rishi and I care massively about education, despite the difference in our journeys. It's how we got to where we got to."

Sunak attended the top fee-paying school Winchester College, while Keegan went to a state secondary in Liverpool.

Jeremy Vine is asking Gillian Keegan about the list of schools affected by RAAC - which has yet to be published - although ministers say it will be done this week.

She says she has two lists - the initial list of schools asked to close buildings last week, and another of schools that are suspected to contain RAAC and are going to be surveyed in the next fortnight.

She says going off historic patterns, two-thirds of these will come back clear.

"There's not very much RAAC in our school estate," she says.

For every school that is found with RAAC mitigations will be put in place, she says, adding that they will be treating every one as critical.

Despite asking schools to respond to requests for information since March 2020, 5% of schools or responsible bodies have not responded to the survey question asking about the presence of RAAC, which Keegan says is "frustrating". She wants people "to get off their backsides" and complete the questionnaires.

Jeremy Vine says: "I don't understand why you closed the schools the week before it starts."

Keegan responds with: "We sent in structural engineers who defined if the schools were in a critical or non-critical situation.

"The Institution of Structural Engineers say if it's OK. Any critical buildings we mitigated straight away."

Keegan goes onto say that the three cases of RAAC failing in the summer changed her attitude towards the material.

"That's when we looked at non-critical ceilings. I thought we've got 100 non-critical cases.

"That's when I made this decision. I am very sorry about the timings but I 100% think it was the right decision," she tells Vine.

The conversation on Vine turns to comments made by Jonathan Slater regarding budgets - where the former top civil servant told the BBC yesterday that the cash to rebuild schools has been halved.

Keegan says the Treasury looks at the track record of a department when granting funding. She says the government has built 50 schools every year.

Labour built 180 schools in total between 2004-2010, she says.

Steering us back to maintenance, Vine asks about the budget.

Keegan says servicing and maintenance is funded from the capital budget - which is £19bn, of which £7bn is allocated to this year.

Jeremy Vine then goes onto ask Gillian Keegan about RAAC being installed in 60s and 70s with a 30-year lifespan, so by the time "the Tory party came into power it already was out of service".

He asked her why wait until 2023 on the first day back at school?

"You have to check that RAAC is not deteriorating," Keegan says.

"There's RAAC all over the world. But in March 2020 we'd asked all the responsible bodies to survey for RAAC - we went to 20,000 schools and the vast majority don't have RAAC.

"We've been looking at cases of RAAC in any environment over the summer. The 'what's changed' moment was there were three cases over the summer - one in a school outside England, a commercial property, one at a school in England.

"You have to manage it - not tear every building down."

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan is speaking to Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 right now.

First question off the blocks is about those colourful comments she made after the TV interview which surfaced yesterday.

By way of explanation, Keegan says the interviewer was "trying to pin everything on me", adding she felt frustrated following the interview.

She said she feels the Department for Education has been doing a really good job, though she conceded it may not feel like that for parents.

She says she is sorry that the call to close buildings with RAAC came at the "worst time" just before the start of term and would have done anything to avoid school closures.

RAAC has been monitored for a long time, Keegan says, and speaks about a roof collapsing at a school in Kent in 2018.

We're turning now to BBC Radio 2, where Education Secretary for England Gillian Keegan is going to be quizzed by lunchtime presenter Jeremy Vine about RAAC in schools.

Live reporters Gem O'Reilly, Ece Goksedef and Jacqueline Howard are listening and will post the best bits here on this page.

You can also listen along on BBC Sounds.

Image source, Reuters

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan is due to be on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 show shortly.

She'll be live from 13:00 BST and we'll be listening in to see what she has to say about the response from her department, local councils and academy trusts to the RAAC safety issue in English schools.

Stay with us and we'll bring you the key lines and quotes from her time with Vine.