You may have received this FOI request from ITV News:

(scroll down for our advice)

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request information about any use of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in your school. The questions are outlined in the table below...

If it is not possible to provide the information due to the request exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request. 

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email and I will be very happy to clarify what I am asking for. My details are at the bottom of this email. 

Please may you insert your answers to this table using the 'answers' and 'additional information' columns as instructed.

Questions	Answers	Additional Information
Name of School
Type of local authority School (eg. Primary or Secondary)
School's postcode
1) Was your school, or any part of it, built between the 1960s and 1980s? Please answer YES or NO to this question.
2) Is there Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in any part of the school premises? Please simply answer YES, NO or UNSURE to this question.
3a) Does the school have a plan in place and the funding to completely remove any areas with RAAC from its premises? If school does have a plan, please indicate 'YES' in the 'answers' column and specify the removal year in the 'additional information' column.
3b) If the school does not have a plan or the funding in place to completely remove any areas with RAAC from its premises, please respond 'NO' in the 'answers column' and specify reasons why (eg insufficient funds or other priorities) in the 'additional information' column.

 

Our advice

This Freedom of Information request is a valid request and should be responded to within 20 working days of receipt.

As with all Freedom of Information requests, the initial question is "Do I have this information in a recorded format?"

There is no requirement to create data to support an FOI response. So if the answer is "yes", then you should answer, if not, then respond with "We do not hold this information". 

Questions

1) Was your school, or any part of it, built between the 1960s and 1980s? Please answer YES or NO to this question.

• This should be a straightforward answer.

2) Is there Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in any part of the school premises? Please simply answer YES, NO or UNSURE to this question.

• Again, this should be straightforward based on the requested response.

3a) Does the school have a plan in place and the funding to completely remove any areas with RAAC from its premises? If the school does have a plan, please indicate 'YES' in the 'answers' column and specify the removal year in the 'additional information' column.

• This only requires answering if you answered "yes" to question 2 and have a plan for its removal

3b) If the school does not have a plan or the funding in place to completely remove any areas with RAAC from its premises, please respond 'NO' in the 'answers column' and specify reasons why (eg insufficient funds or other priorities) in the 'additional information' column.

• This only requires answering if you answered "yes" to question 2 and DO NOT have a plan for its removal. If you do not have an existing documented reason for answering, then you are not obliged to provide any further information though you may do so if you wish.

If you need any further assistance, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.