7. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the 21st Century Schools programme? OAQ(5)0070(EDU)

Thank you, Nick. Band A of the twenty-first century schools and education programme will see an investment of more than £1.4 billion over the five years of the programme, which will come to an end in 2019. To date, funding has been approved for 127 of the 150 projects in the programme, and 102 of those are either under construction at present or have been completed.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Monmouthshire County Council has worked closely with the Welsh Government to immeasurably improve, initially, primary schools in Monmouthshire, and Monmouth Comprehensive School is now being rebuilt, with other comprehensives having to wait. There continues to be a real problem with the presence of asbestos in schools across Wales. How are you going to ensure that that twenty-first century schools programme funding is best targeted, so that real issues such as asbestos are right at the front of the queue of being dealt with and are prioritised by the Welsh Government and local authorities across Wales?

Thank you, Nick. I am glad that you have recognised the close working between the Welsh Government and Monmouthshire council. Funding of around £93.4 million has been committed for Monmouthshire, with the Welsh Government contributing £45.6 million towards the sums of the new buildings in your constituency, which is a significant amount of money. The state of a school building is one of the factors that prioritises placement for a school building programme within the programme. So, the state of the school building and its state of disrepair is an important factor. It should be remembered that, when it is undisturbed and is kept in situ and adequately managed, asbestos does not pose a risk, but, as I said, individual local authorities carry out a survey and Welsh Government also assist in that process to look at the state of school buildings, and that is an important factor in gaining approval for a twenty-first century school bid.