:00:10. > :00:15.When we send our children to school in the morning, what do we expect?
:00:16. > :00:18.This is a story about how a place that should be one of safety can be
:00:19. > :00:29.We trust when we drop our children off at school
:00:30. > :00:38.We don't want them going into buildings that are unsafe.
:00:39. > :00:41.What happens when every parent's worst nightmare comes true?
:00:42. > :00:44.You get angry, you get sad and it's just, it's like you've
:00:45. > :00:52.I've spent the last few months looking into how
:00:53. > :01:10.and who's benefitting financially from a system few of us understand.
:01:11. > :01:13.It is really a profit machine, with lots of people making substantial
:01:14. > :01:16.sums of money out of it. This is a story that starts
:01:17. > :01:18.with a single wall, But this story goes far wider
:01:19. > :01:21.and deeper than that. It's about schools across Scotland
:01:22. > :01:24.and billions of pounds In the early hours of 29th January,
:01:25. > :01:45.Storm Gertrude swept across the Atlantic and hit
:01:46. > :01:49.Scotland. By morning the worst was over,
:01:50. > :02:04.but the damage it had done was just We were getting ready for school one
:02:05. > :02:11.morning and we had the radio on and said they'd got a text
:02:12. > :02:15.through to say there's been a bit of storm damage and the school
:02:16. > :02:18.is closed so I thought, "I'll just drive past the school
:02:19. > :02:20.and see what's happening," and I actually stopped the car
:02:21. > :02:23.in the middle of the road Shocked because almost the entire
:02:24. > :02:31.gable wall of the school had The school was Oxgangs Primary
:02:32. > :02:41.in South Edinburgh. I've got some photos
:02:42. > :02:43.here of the day when So this is just what we saw
:02:44. > :02:47.we arrived at the school. Usually on a windy day it's quite
:02:48. > :02:51.an exposed site so the wind comes So what we'll do when we get
:02:52. > :02:57.to the school is you'll usually see a line of people with their backs
:02:58. > :02:59.tight to the wall, Literally where this rubble is
:03:00. > :03:03.right now? The entrance to the classroom's kind
:03:04. > :03:10.of round the corner of that building there, so we just kind of wait
:03:11. > :03:13.there and then when the school bell goes off they go round the corner
:03:14. > :03:26.and into the...into the door. These images, taken on the morning
:03:27. > :03:29.of the collapse by a news photographer, show just how many
:03:30. > :03:34.bricks fell onto the playground. Only the fact that the accident
:03:35. > :03:37.happened early in the morning If it had happened during the day,
:03:38. > :03:48.like I say, there would have been You actually try not to think
:03:49. > :03:52.about it, cos it's just, you know, So we just kind of put it
:03:53. > :03:57.to the back of our minds cos it's just something that you can't even
:03:58. > :03:59.comprehend, what that would be like. Oxgangs was only built in 2005,
:04:00. > :04:02.as one of 17 new schools across Edinburgh, so the collapse
:04:03. > :04:07.caught parents completely off guard. The school was closed for a few days
:04:08. > :04:10.for repairs then parents were reassured the school was safe
:04:11. > :04:17.and the pupils returned. So life went on as normal
:04:18. > :04:21.for the next six weeks of school. Then the Mackels enjoyed
:04:22. > :04:24.the Easter holidays. But just 48 hours before the school
:04:25. > :04:27.was set to reopen after the break, At 18:58, it says the school's
:04:28. > :04:43.going to be closed on Monday, Sincere apologies, and then
:04:44. > :04:49.with the link that we went onto, it basically said, "Please make
:04:50. > :04:51.contingency child care arrangements Yeah, there was no time
:04:52. > :04:55.scale at that point. As you can imagine, that meant a mad
:04:56. > :04:59.scramble to cover childcare. But once the reality sunk in,
:05:00. > :05:01.they began to wonder if their children had been told
:05:02. > :05:06.to return to a potentially dangerous school for the six weeks
:05:07. > :05:13.before the holidays. Knowing what you know now,
:05:14. > :05:16.how do you feel about the fact It's really distressing,
:05:17. > :05:18.to be honest. And I think maybe just a bit
:05:19. > :05:22.of a rush decision to kind I think that has made it very
:05:23. > :05:36.upsetting for parents. You know, we trust when we drop our
:05:37. > :05:39.children off at school We don't want them going
:05:40. > :05:43.into buildings that are unsafe. All parents were told
:05:44. > :05:46.was that the school had to shut because engineers had
:05:47. > :05:47.said it wasn't safe. But now the problem
:05:48. > :05:49.started to spread. Oxgangs was built as part
:05:50. > :05:53.of a ?360 million package of 17 All of those schools were inspected,
:05:54. > :06:01.and it quickly emerged there were serious safety
:06:02. > :06:06.concerns at all of them. In May, this was the scene
:06:07. > :06:21.at schools across Edinburgh. 17 shut schools meant 7,000 children
:06:22. > :06:39.being shifted around This is just one of seven day buses
:06:40. > :06:44.taking thousands of children across the city every morning at 9am. This
:06:45. > :06:47.has been happening every day for weeks. The logistics are
:06:48. > :07:01.mind-boggling. And this happened just two weeks
:07:02. > :07:03.before some of the most These pupils are doing last-minute
:07:04. > :07:08.revision here at Tynecastle High. They've been bussed across the city
:07:09. > :07:15.from Craigmount High. Tynecastle had just three days
:07:16. > :07:20.to prepare for their arrival. We moved 515 of our senior students
:07:21. > :07:28.to Tynecastle High School. You have doubled the number
:07:29. > :07:30.of pupils you are You have gone from 500-odd
:07:31. > :07:38.to about 1,000. How on earth do you overnight
:07:39. > :07:42.accommodate a doubling Well, we did it within three days
:07:43. > :07:50.and a lot of hard work. Physically fitting in twice as many
:07:51. > :07:53.students as usual was a problem. But the most immediate one was that
:07:54. > :07:56.Senior pupils from Craigmount had exams to sit, but
:07:57. > :08:00.nowhere to sit them. So you created an exam hall
:08:01. > :08:02.overnight? And that's tables, chairs,
:08:03. > :08:07.everything, flooring even? Yes, we had to bring
:08:08. > :08:09.in flooring to make sure that it was sound-proofed and also
:08:10. > :08:13.because of the nature of the floor Across the city at the Royal High
:08:14. > :08:21.School, pupils had to be moved into portacabins
:08:22. > :08:23.while contractors surveyed What do you need to do now to make
:08:24. > :08:38.these into cubes? Teachers were faced with a pretty
:08:39. > :08:40.unappealing prospect. When you first come in to your
:08:41. > :08:43.new hut and find that actually it is just a hut and 30
:08:44. > :08:46.chairs and 30 desks, I would imagine their hearts sank
:08:47. > :08:48.because most of my subjects who are homeless are the practical
:08:49. > :08:51.subjects, you know CDT, art, home economics, computing,
:08:52. > :08:53.those that really need quite It's hard to ignore the fact that,
:08:54. > :08:58.here at the Royal High, the old building is open and it's
:08:59. > :09:03.the newer extension which is shut. The new building was too dangerous
:09:04. > :09:16.for the children to occupy. Your pupils and staff have
:09:17. > :09:18.been using a building Yeah, I mean, that's
:09:19. > :09:21.a difficult one to accept. I mean, obviously
:09:22. > :09:23.as their headteacher, I'm responsible for all these young
:09:24. > :09:25.people, all 1,260. They're mine, my staff as well,
:09:26. > :09:28.and I do feel that, you know, it's quite a difficult one to take,
:09:29. > :09:30.that we've been working in a building where potentially
:09:31. > :09:33.something awful could happen. I would like answers
:09:34. > :09:35.as to why that has happened We should be able to trust
:09:36. > :09:40.that the buildings we have our young people in are safe, sound
:09:41. > :09:44.and the very best for them. She's not the only one
:09:45. > :09:46.who wants answers. After all, 17 relatively new schools
:09:47. > :09:53.have been found to be unsafe. This school is just over a decade
:09:54. > :09:57.old, and when that wall fell down, So you can understand why parents
:09:58. > :10:02.want to know exactly The council told parents
:10:03. > :10:09.that these were cavity walls, and that issues with wall ties
:10:10. > :10:11.and header ties might have But for most people - me included -
:10:12. > :10:18.that's little more than jargon. So it's time for me to have a crash
:10:19. > :10:41.course in cavity wall building. Walls were. -- work. I'll do a quick
:10:42. > :10:49.sketch of how they go together. You have the skeleton and it supports
:10:50. > :10:55.the floor is that we stand on. That is a steel column, steel beams, and
:10:56. > :11:02.these support the roof up here and the floor here. We have to clad this
:11:03. > :11:07.skeleton to keep the wind out and to keep us warm. If I was to do a quick
:11:08. > :11:23.section, if you could cut through the building and look that way, what
:11:24. > :11:31.you would see is the inner leaf, but of concrete, insulation, and the
:11:32. > :11:42.outer leaf, which fell down, in brick. These are held together with
:11:43. > :11:52.wall ties. These hold this outer leaf together onto the inner leaf.
:11:53. > :11:53.The skeleton makes it stand up and these are the clothes and part of
:11:54. > :11:55.them fell off. Back in Edinburgh, I needed to see
:11:56. > :11:58.what I could find out So I went right back
:11:59. > :12:02.to the beginning. I got hold of the plans filed
:12:03. > :12:18.with the Council to get We have got our hands on some
:12:19. > :12:26.documents relating to ox gangs primary. They are very detailed and
:12:27. > :12:29.technical and we are hoping there are answers in here but we will need
:12:30. > :12:31.some help. Professor Alan Dunlop
:12:32. > :12:32.is a leading architect. I asked him to help us make sense
:12:33. > :12:35.of the drawings we got And, crucially, what would they tell
:12:36. > :12:40.us about the wall and header ties the council had already said
:12:41. > :12:44.were at least part of the problem. You can clearly see the steelwork
:12:45. > :12:46.which forms the main body You can also quite, quite clearly
:12:47. > :12:50.see the outer leaf of brickwork You can see the cavity space
:12:51. > :12:58.in between but there is no evidence on the detailed drawings of a wall
:12:59. > :13:02.tie or a header tie that I can see which would connect it
:13:03. > :13:04.back to the steelwork. So there's no wall ties
:13:05. > :13:08.in these drawings at all? I can't see, and I'm looking
:13:09. > :13:10.at the specification. I can't see evidence or a detailed
:13:11. > :13:16.direction or evidence of a wall I'd at least expect to see
:13:17. > :13:26.the specification to actually refer directly to a wall tie or give
:13:27. > :13:29.a reference to it but I can't see Wall ties are mentioned just once
:13:30. > :13:36.in supporting notes. It's possible they appeared
:13:37. > :13:38.on other drawings. Correctly fitting ties
:13:39. > :13:45.when you build a cavity wall If you have a steel-frame building,
:13:46. > :13:52.or a concrete-frame building that's clad in brickwork,
:13:53. > :13:55.and the brickwork is so thin, as is shown within these detailed
:13:56. > :13:58.drawings, you have to, through the wall tie,
:13:59. > :14:01.connect it to the inner leaf of blockwork and you have to,
:14:02. > :14:03.through the header tie, connect it to the main
:14:04. > :14:05.part of the structure It's not even necessarily
:14:06. > :14:13.architecture. So if something so basic has gone
:14:14. > :14:26.wrong, who can tell us They're Local Authority schools,
:14:27. > :14:30.so is it the council? These are PFI, or Private
:14:31. > :14:35.Finance Initiative schools, which means the buildings are built
:14:36. > :14:40.and run by private companies. To help explain, we've
:14:41. > :14:43.enlisted the help of some The council signed a contract
:14:44. > :14:59.with these guys to build the schools Together they are called
:15:00. > :15:04.the Edinburgh Schools Every month, the council pays
:15:05. > :15:22.the ESP to provide those We need to see how we can sort this
:15:23. > :15:33.out. So, obviously, the Edinburgh Schools
:15:34. > :15:36.Partnership went to the top They've hired this PR firm to deal
:15:37. > :15:45.with media enquiries but when we asked to interview
:15:46. > :15:48.someone, they told us there wasn't one single person who
:15:49. > :16:00.could answer questions. Surely there must be
:16:01. > :16:06.someone taking responsibility. Let's face it - they built and now
:16:07. > :16:08.run council schools, Just a few streets away,
:16:09. > :16:17.there's a company called They've been hired by
:16:18. > :16:24.the partnership to carry out the running of the schools
:16:25. > :16:26.on a day-to-day basis. One of their staff is the key
:16:27. > :16:32.contact who has been in and out of the council offices trying
:16:33. > :16:35.to fix the mess. IML are more than
:16:36. > :16:39.managers or factors. They have a director on the board
:16:40. > :16:42.of the Schools Partnership, responsible for hundreds of millions
:16:43. > :16:47.of pounds of public money. Our interview request
:16:48. > :16:51.to IML was also refused. I was beginning to feel like no-one
:16:52. > :17:13.was willing to explain It has been a challenge to get
:17:14. > :17:18.people to talk about what was going on behind the scenes but one man was
:17:19. > :17:24.prepared to talk. Donald Anderson, leader
:17:25. > :17:27.of the council at the time. Donald Anderson was the man
:17:28. > :17:30.who signed the deal to spend over What we were setting about trying
:17:31. > :17:36.to achieve was, and still is, the biggest investment that's ever
:17:37. > :17:38.taken place in public So when the wall came down
:17:39. > :17:43.at Oxgangs and another 16 schools were found to be potentially
:17:44. > :17:45.dangerous, what were your thoughts? Well, I think my thoughts
:17:46. > :17:48.were the same as everybody else's What has been clearly demonstrated
:17:49. > :17:53.by what's taken place is that there were a series of very
:17:54. > :17:56.serious construction faults in these schools,
:17:57. > :18:00.and that needs to be accounted for. I think we all agree
:18:01. > :18:02.the construction faults need There are detailed inspection
:18:03. > :18:08.reports but the council and the ESP won't release them ahead
:18:09. > :18:10.of an independent inquiry into the schools crisis,
:18:11. > :18:18.which should report in December. So we'll have to try our best
:18:19. > :18:23.to find out ourselves. We retrieved the best images
:18:24. > :18:25.we could of the collapsed wall They said this was no substitute
:18:26. > :18:32.for a detailed on the What we can tell from
:18:33. > :18:40.the photographs is that the method of failure would appear
:18:41. > :18:44.that the wind suction has managed to pull the building,
:18:45. > :18:48.the external leaf of brick, away from this point here,
:18:49. > :18:54.and ripping it down in that fashion, leaving this section of brickwork,
:18:55. > :18:56.which is now hanging and, as you say, it would be
:18:57. > :18:59.in an unsafe state. So clearly that would obviously have
:19:00. > :19:03.to be removed to be made safe. And what kind of weight of bricks
:19:04. > :19:05.have come off this wall? For a very rough estimate,
:19:06. > :19:09.because, again, from a photograph it's difficult to tell the exact
:19:10. > :19:12.size of it and such like, but you would be looking
:19:13. > :19:14.at about 1.5 tonnes, between one and 1.5 tonnes,
:19:15. > :19:17.metric tonnes of brickwork. Right, so a serious weight
:19:18. > :19:19.that could do damage? I mean, if that landed
:19:20. > :19:26.on somebody standing there, Well, most likely
:19:27. > :19:35.lead to a fatality. So let's start with the wall ties,
:19:36. > :19:38.the metal parts you can Were they doing what they're meant
:19:39. > :19:42.to do - holding the parts Some of the wall ties,
:19:43. > :19:46.although there's a number of them and they are regularly spaced,
:19:47. > :19:49.some of them appear short so that For instance, this one here looks
:19:50. > :19:58.as though it can come That distance left over really
:19:59. > :20:10.is about the size of the cavity Now, it doesn't look as though
:20:11. > :20:14.it's actually done that. Not to say it hasn't done it,
:20:15. > :20:26.it could have broken They're quite slight
:20:27. > :20:32.and slender, these ties. They might have broken
:20:33. > :20:35.off, but that's... Again, if I was carrying out
:20:36. > :20:37.a serious investigation on this, that would be something I would be
:20:38. > :20:40.actually looking at. And there's evidence some wall ties
:20:41. > :20:42.and the header ties, designed to connect the outer wall
:20:43. > :20:45.to the frame of the building, Just judging from the photographs
:20:46. > :20:49.that we actually see at the moment, there doesn't appear to be a wall
:20:50. > :20:52.tie connecting the inner leaf of blockwork through the insulation
:20:53. > :20:55.and through the cavity to the outer leaf of blockwork above
:20:56. > :20:56.this level. That's not to say they weren't
:20:57. > :21:00.there and they were knocked down There doesn't appear to be anything
:21:01. > :21:04.connecting the brickwork The steel is actually
:21:05. > :21:09.holding the roof up, it's a steel building, it's not
:21:10. > :21:12.a brick and block building, right? There doesn't seem to anything
:21:13. > :21:15.connecting to that. So, on the basis of just looking
:21:16. > :21:18.at images, there seem to be problems with how many wall ties
:21:19. > :21:20.are in place, whether they are properly attached,
:21:21. > :21:23.and a question about whether the header ties securing
:21:24. > :21:26.the top of the wall to the rest But as defects had been found at not
:21:27. > :21:33.one but 17 schools in Edinburgh, to what extent could the problem be
:21:34. > :21:40.affecting schools elsewhere? We sent Freedom of Information
:21:41. > :21:43.requests to every council in Scotland, asking about structural
:21:44. > :21:46.faults in the past five years. And we found problems
:21:47. > :21:55.like Oxgangs elsewhere. At St Ninian's in East Renfrewshire,
:21:56. > :22:00.engineers found these wall ties weren't properly
:22:01. > :22:02.embedded because the joints The council ended up paying more
:22:03. > :22:08.than ?750,000 to fix Two walls collapsed
:22:09. > :22:17.in South Lanarkshire, fortunately during the school
:22:18. > :22:20.holidays, here at A further 58 wall ties needed to be
:22:21. > :22:33.added to another eight schools When a wall collapsed
:22:34. > :22:40.at Lourdes Primary in Glasgow, the problems were, once again,
:22:41. > :22:44.wall and header ties. And at Balfron High
:22:45. > :22:46.in Stirlingshire, the school was forced to close
:22:47. > :22:51.to repair similar defects. The images from St Ninian's High
:22:52. > :23:07.School in East Renfrewshire show badly fitted wall ties that don't
:23:08. > :23:10.reach across the cavity and join up Although the council discovered
:23:11. > :23:18.the problems in 2010, they didn't tell parents about them
:23:19. > :23:21.as they decided the defects weren't This is the first time these images
:23:22. > :23:26.have been made public and, although the problems were discussed
:23:27. > :23:39.at a public council meeting in 2013, the existence of wall tie problems
:23:40. > :23:46.here was not realised more widely. This is from a school
:23:47. > :23:48.in East Renfrewshire this time. From these reports and the evidence
:23:49. > :23:51.you can see, what's your I would suggest that it not only
:23:52. > :23:58.contravenes what would be standard practice, in my view,
:23:59. > :24:02.this is malpractice. The way some of these things
:24:03. > :24:06.are done is very worrying indeed and I'm also concerned and shocked
:24:07. > :24:09.that this is something that happened in 2010 and we don't know anything
:24:10. > :24:11.at all about it. A wall built like this,
:24:12. > :24:13.here's the key question, If you have a wall,
:24:14. > :24:20.if you have an external leaf of brickwork and there's no evidence
:24:21. > :24:23.of it being connected, in the way following, for instance,
:24:24. > :24:26.the British Standards, to the underleaf of brickwork,
:24:27. > :24:28.blockwork, and there's no evidence of any connection to the steelwork
:24:29. > :24:31.then I would suggest it's And the thing that's also worrying
:24:32. > :24:39.about a situation like this is this also looks as though there's
:24:40. > :24:41.a parallel between what happened in this school, as far
:24:42. > :24:44.as the construction of it, with what happened in Oxgangs,
:24:45. > :24:47.and that's a very kind of serious thing and,
:24:48. > :24:49.if it's happened, if under Freedom of Information you've
:24:50. > :24:51.managed to get this, I'm beginning to wonder where else
:24:52. > :24:53.is it actually being constructed So is there something about how
:24:54. > :25:01.we're building schools, and other public buildings,
:25:02. > :25:03.that might make Well, there was something,
:25:04. > :25:11.and it has to do with who is really In olden days and I go back,
:25:12. > :25:24.clients where there was much more traditional contracts where the end
:25:25. > :25:26.user, be that the council or otherwise, was actually
:25:27. > :25:29.the client and he employed the design team who would involve
:25:30. > :25:31.an architect, a structural engineer a building services engineer
:25:32. > :25:34.and a quantity surveyor who is the man who looks
:25:35. > :25:36.after the money. The contracts have changed
:25:37. > :25:41.and morphed radically over the years, until we have systems
:25:42. > :25:44.like the PFI system where the view is taken that this consortium
:25:45. > :25:49.will deliver the goods in accordance with these on trust to the client
:25:50. > :25:54.so the client has no control over the design team or has no,
:25:55. > :25:56.or no longer employs people In a way he deems that that
:25:57. > :26:08.saves him money and it passes Yes, but then he opens himself
:26:09. > :26:19.to the risk that the contractor who is checking himself is telling
:26:20. > :26:21.the truth and has done So - back in Edinburgh -
:26:22. > :26:25.who was actually responsible for making sure these schools
:26:26. > :26:27.were built to be safe? To help us out we've
:26:28. > :26:31.called on our Edinburgh But they are built by a consortium
:26:32. > :26:37.of people who bring money, facilities management and,
:26:38. > :26:38.crucially At Oxgangs that lead
:26:39. > :26:44.construction firm back in 2005 the ESP takes on the
:26:45. > :26:52.responsibility for designing If the Council is handing out
:26:53. > :27:05.work it could choose to have its own eyes
:27:06. > :27:08.and ears on the site. This is often through
:27:09. > :27:13.a Clerk Of Works. Their job is to inspect the build
:27:14. > :27:16.as it goes on and make sure But there wasn't one on the 17
:27:17. > :27:28.school builds and the Council haven't been able to show us any
:27:29. > :27:34.evidence anyone else inspected So I made contact with
:27:35. > :27:48.an experienced clerk of works. He was worried about how speaking
:27:49. > :27:50.to me might affect his employment. So his words are
:27:51. > :27:54.spoken by an actor. I am very concerned that such
:27:55. > :27:57.an occurrence is even possible As an experienced Clerk
:27:58. > :28:03.of Works I am appalled to read that the construction
:28:04. > :28:08.process used involved self-certification of work and that
:28:09. > :28:10.no Council Construction Inspector In these days of tight budgetary
:28:11. > :28:15.controls and a diminishing supply of skilled labour, this is totally
:28:16. > :28:21.reckless and irresponsible. So the Council can't
:28:22. > :28:26.reassure parents that anyone inspected this wall,
:28:27. > :28:28.as it was built, on its behalf. We've established other
:28:29. > :28:30.councils did have clerks So was it a failure
:28:31. > :28:34.on the Edinburgh's part? You did not have a clerk of works
:28:35. > :28:37.on site who may well have I think that's a fair
:28:38. > :28:43.comment to make. At the time and for a long time
:28:44. > :28:47.in the public sector, there has been a series whereby
:28:48. > :28:49.responsibility for carrying out the inspection regime falls
:28:50. > :28:53.on the contractor and, and that has been the case
:28:54. > :28:56.for a number of years. It was about transferring risk
:28:57. > :29:02.to the private sector for these buildings so that, rather than build
:29:03. > :29:05.a school and then walk away from it, companies who actually did that
:29:06. > :29:07.looked after the building for 30 years and made sure it was properly
:29:08. > :29:39.maintained. And that's a risk that lies
:29:40. > :29:42.with the council, that doesn't... Well the council has that issue
:29:43. > :29:45.in all of its estate. The council's looking
:29:46. > :29:47.at a ?45 million backlog in terms of the rest of its school
:29:48. > :29:49.estate at the moment. It's hoping to spend
:29:50. > :29:52.?20 million a year on improving That risk to the children
:29:53. > :30:03.and to the children's education No, the risk for looking
:30:04. > :30:06.after the buildings was transferred to the private sector
:30:07. > :30:08.so that they bore responsibility for putting any problems right
:30:09. > :30:10.so that was transferred, and that's exactly what's
:30:11. > :30:12.happening at the moment. They are paying to restore
:30:13. > :30:14.the schools to their The buildings failed and that
:30:15. > :30:17.failed the children. It's the children who are paying for
:30:18. > :30:20.this really through their education. That's true in this particular
:30:21. > :30:24.instance but that would also be true if these had been funded
:30:25. > :30:29.in the conventional means. Are we any closer to knowing
:30:30. > :30:32.who is responsible for Edinburgh's Even the man who led
:30:33. > :30:41.the Council when the deal was signed admits mistakes
:30:42. > :30:43.were made. Later we'll take a closer look
:30:44. > :30:46.at the other major players - the construction firms who built
:30:47. > :30:56.the wall. But across Edinburgh I met up
:30:57. > :30:59.with a parent who knows just how Abbie Wallis's daughter left
:31:00. > :31:03.for the day at Liberton High A few hours later the school phoned
:31:04. > :31:12.Abbie saying Keane had been hurt. The lady sounded serious
:31:13. > :31:15.on the phone and I thought she's And then I drove down to the school
:31:16. > :31:23.and a paramedic passed me and in my head I was saying,
:31:24. > :31:30.don't turn left, don't turn left. And he drove past the school and I
:31:31. > :31:36.thought "phew" and then as I got nearer to the school he done
:31:37. > :31:39.a U-turn in the road and drove into the school and then I saw
:31:40. > :31:42.all the emergency services and I got stopped at the gate,
:31:43. > :31:48.asking if I was Abbie Wallis. Keane had been changing before gym
:31:49. > :31:55.when a wall collapsed on top of her. By the time she had been recovered
:31:56. > :32:01.from under the rubble, she had died. It wasn't until just after probably
:32:02. > :32:08.10.30 that they told me. I don't know if it sunk
:32:09. > :32:11.in at the time or, I just, I did ask to be with her
:32:12. > :32:16.but they said I wasn't allowed at that point,
:32:17. > :32:18.I wasn't allowed to see her I would have felt better I think
:32:19. > :32:26.if I could have just held her hand So the last time I saw her
:32:27. > :32:31.was when I dropped her off at school at about 8.20 or
:32:32. > :32:40.something that morning. Every day I go over the events
:32:41. > :32:42.of April 1st thinking what could have been done
:32:43. > :32:46.or what should have been And you get angry, you get
:32:47. > :32:49.sad and it's just... Every road you drive down there's
:32:50. > :33:01.a memory and always... and then watching all the children
:33:02. > :33:05.go to school and see how they've changed and it makes you wonder
:33:06. > :33:08.what would she look like. They've changed so much in two
:33:09. > :33:12.years, it makes me wonder what would she be like now in those
:33:13. > :33:17.two years, now. When you lose a daughter
:33:18. > :33:19.it can be really hard Abbie has now decided to speak out
:33:20. > :33:27.because two years later she's still waiting to hear
:33:28. > :33:28.whether anyone will face I feel stuck back two
:33:29. > :33:38.years ago until I know accountable, I feel,
:33:39. > :33:46.and I did expect something It's really hard to
:33:47. > :33:54.get past it just now. Who do you feel is responsible
:33:55. > :34:02.for Keane's death? I don't really want
:34:03. > :34:05.to say who I, until... I don't
:34:06. > :34:06.want to point fingers. I have my own feelings
:34:07. > :34:08.about who's accountable. I know it wasn't malicious
:34:09. > :34:11.or anything but at the end of the day I took my daughter
:34:12. > :34:13.to school believing that she was safe there
:34:14. > :34:24.and that she would be looked after, Abbie and Keane's brother made this
:34:25. > :34:34.video after her death. It shows a cheeky, energetic girl
:34:35. > :34:37.who lost her life in a place When the wall at Oxgangs came down
:34:38. > :34:47.Abbie was thrust back into the dark place she's
:34:48. > :34:49.struggled to escape When I first read about it, I just,
:34:50. > :34:59.my heart just sank really. But then I was relieved
:35:00. > :35:02.that nobody was injured because it could have been,
:35:03. > :35:05.it could have been awful. Could have been a lot worse and then
:35:06. > :35:08.I just felt angry and then I was pleased that they were looking
:35:09. > :35:11.into it, all these But just mainly relief
:35:12. > :35:21.that nobody was hurt. Meeting you, in a way, what that
:35:22. > :35:24.does is makes me realise that when we talk about buildings
:35:25. > :35:26.being potentially unsafe, I wouldn't have
:35:27. > :35:38.expected schools to be, any building really,
:35:39. > :35:42.I just wouldn't... expect them to be in that state,
:35:43. > :35:45.left in that state whether they're It doesn't bear thinking
:35:46. > :35:52.about really what, I'd hate for another family
:35:53. > :36:00.to be in our position. Liberton High School
:36:01. > :36:03.was an old school, not a PFI one. And the internal wall that killed
:36:04. > :36:06.Keane was not built in the same way But Abbie is struggling to get
:36:07. > :36:14.answers about what happened to Keane, just as parents
:36:15. > :36:17.at Edinburgh's PFI schools are left with important questions
:36:18. > :36:23.about safety. We asked all Scotland's councils
:36:24. > :36:26.what they did after Keane's death. 27 dangerous free-standing walls
:36:27. > :36:32.in schools had to be demolished. In North Lanarkshire, two free
:36:33. > :36:43.standing walls were found to be In Glasgow, it took them more
:36:44. > :36:49.than six months after finding a wall with major cracks in
:36:50. > :36:54.it, to take it down. A further 35 walls around
:36:55. > :37:03.the country had to be repaired. Schools are really the only safe
:37:04. > :37:07.place I felt for the children. Like, I'd drop them off at school
:37:08. > :37:10.and get on with my day in my head It's not like when they're out
:37:11. > :37:15.playing or maybe at friends and you didn't know
:37:16. > :37:17.what was going on. And it's the one time that
:37:18. > :37:20.you could switch off The last place that you'd ever
:37:21. > :37:31.expect something bad to happen. And on the other side of Edinburgh,
:37:32. > :37:35.Oxgangs families are aware of how close they came to being
:37:36. > :37:38.In Abbie's position. It has been upsetting cos there have
:37:39. > :37:41.been other instances within Edinburgh schools
:37:42. > :37:43.where children have been And I think there was a thorough
:37:44. > :37:53.check at that time so that's just upsetting that things didn't come
:37:54. > :37:55.to light earlier really. It's been a very lucky escape,
:37:56. > :38:00.definitely, of which we're obviously Our investigation of what had
:38:01. > :38:09.happened at the PFI schools had uncovered concerns
:38:10. > :38:10.about whether the Council had What about the people
:38:11. > :38:20.who actually built the wall? Since the wall clearly
:38:21. > :38:22.failed, are the people The Edinburgh Schools Partnership
:38:23. > :38:26.included a builder - But on big design and build jobs
:38:27. > :38:36.much of the day to day worked is farmed out to smaller
:38:37. > :38:40.subcontractors. We've been told there
:38:41. > :38:42.was a brick and blockwork Until now no-one has been able
:38:43. > :38:48.to get to the sub-contractor A farm on the southern
:38:49. > :39:02.outskirts of Glasgow. This farm used to host the offices
:39:03. > :39:23.of a firm called VB Contracts - We managed to track down a former
:39:24. > :39:27.senior employee and he confirmed that his company did build
:39:28. > :39:33.the walls at Oxgangs. Our source didn't
:39:34. > :39:36.want to be identified. But there were a couple of
:39:37. > :39:40.interesting things he could tell us. First that there was a lot of time
:39:41. > :39:47.pressure on the jobs. Second, that there was possibly
:39:48. > :39:51.something unusual about the build. Remember our structural engineer's
:39:52. > :40:03.diagram of the wall? Well, there's the internal blockwork
:40:04. > :40:21.and there's the outside skin other source said Harold Miller told
:40:22. > :40:30.the two build it first and then the outer layer of bricks.
:40:31. > :40:32.That's not the way it's usually done.
:40:33. > :40:35.Normally the inner layer of blockwork - the grey blocks here -
:40:36. > :40:38.and the outer of layer of brickwork - the part that fell off at Oxgangs
:40:39. > :40:51.- are put up section by section at the same time.
:40:52. > :40:54.That allows the builder to make sure the two parts are properly connected
:40:55. > :40:58.But we're being told that's not what happened here.
:40:59. > :41:01.In my view view that's at the root of the problem at Oxgangs.
:41:02. > :41:04.It certainly would not be standard practice and I would expect that,
:41:05. > :41:07.I mean I could understand why the contractor would want to do that
:41:08. > :41:10.for instance, because that means that the inside of the building can
:41:11. > :41:12.be wind and water tight so the trades that are involved
:41:13. > :41:14.in plasterers and plumbing and heating engineers
:41:15. > :41:16.and the electricians can work within a dry environment.
:41:17. > :41:19.But if you're going to do that, I would expect a method statement
:41:20. > :41:26.It's not something you do for instance ad hoc.
:41:27. > :41:29.And you have to do it properly and you have to specify the right
:41:30. > :41:32.Could that have been done at Oxgangs?
:41:33. > :41:35.In the evidence of the photographs that we have seen, that doesn't look
:41:36. > :41:37.to be the proper wall tie that you would actually use
:41:38. > :41:42.If a wall has been built the way that contractors
:41:43. > :41:48.told us they built it, is it safe?
:41:49. > :41:50.Well, the evidence is clear in the Oxgangs project.
:41:51. > :41:53.The wall collapsed and evidently it doesn't look as though
:41:54. > :42:02.And again that's another shocking and worrying aspect
:42:03. > :42:05.Our investigation has come a long way.
:42:06. > :42:09.We have a potential explanation for the collapse.
:42:10. > :42:12.An independent inquiry now under way will perhaps reveal more.
:42:13. > :42:15.But we had some big questions for the company that built
:42:16. > :42:20.the school - Miller Construction Limited.
:42:21. > :42:28.Miller Construction, that built the wall at Oxgangs,
:42:29. > :42:31.It was bought by another Construction Firm -
:42:32. > :42:35.They told us they had contractual responsibility for the school
:42:36. > :42:43.Over the course of our investigation we submitted over 30 detailed
:42:44. > :42:45.questions and allegations to Galliford Try relating
:42:46. > :42:50.Other than confirming they had taken over Miller's responsibilities
:42:51. > :42:58.Galliford Try's priority has been to ensure the children
:42:59. > :43:01.return to their studies at the earliest opportunity.
:43:02. > :43:03.We worked tirelessly with the City of Edinburgh Council
:43:04. > :43:07.and Edinburgh Schools Partnership in order to achieve this.
:43:08. > :43:09.So where does that leave us with who's accountable?
:43:10. > :43:14.Galliford Try won't answer any questions about the build.
:43:15. > :43:17.And The Edinburgh schools partnership - the company in charge
:43:18. > :43:22.- says it won't speculate ahead of the inquiry.
:43:23. > :43:27.So when it comes to what went wrong and why, we haven't had a single
:43:28. > :43:30.answer from any one of the companies potentially answerable for the safe
:43:31. > :43:52.So far this had been a pretty strange journey in many ways.
:43:53. > :43:54.But things are about to take an odder turn.
:43:55. > :44:04.Meet Dexter Whitfield - a man who has devoted two decades
:44:05. > :44:06.to working out where the money goes in PFI deals
:44:07. > :44:21.And it's like a jigsaw where there's lots of great holes and where,
:44:22. > :44:24.and if you're not you know, my attitude, if I'm not certain,
:44:25. > :44:30.or that information is hazy, or the source is questionable
:44:31. > :44:36.or whatever, it doesn't go in and it's built
:44:37. > :44:39.up meticulously, like a labour of love,
:44:40. > :44:41.from basic corporate information and information that I source
:44:42. > :44:45.What Dexter is looking for is evidence about
:44:46. > :44:54.And he's established that the Edinburgh Schools Partnership
:44:55. > :45:08.is a constantly shifting cast of characters.
:45:09. > :45:11.The the Edinburgh Schools Project, the PP1 project, my analysis shows
:45:12. > :45:12.that that has been bought, elements of that equity
:45:13. > :45:18.project have been bought 13 different times since 2001.
:45:19. > :45:20.What that means is that companies are buying and selling their stakes
:45:21. > :45:29.And it's ended up with our schools being owned
:45:30. > :45:36.Well basically if you look at the Edinburgh Schools Project,
:45:37. > :45:42.it's owned by four different companies.
:45:43. > :45:44.Those four different companies are located offshore
:45:45. > :45:48.in Guernsey and Jersey, and they, they are basically
:45:49. > :46:06.The 17 schools here in Edinburgh in the project
:46:07. > :46:09.are to the private sector a financial commodity
:46:10. > :46:11.So the Edinburgh Schools Partnership is currently owned by four anonymous
:46:12. > :46:30.sounding investment funds - all based offshore.
:46:31. > :46:32.Dexter Whitfield's analysis has revealed that the majority
:46:33. > :46:35.of Scotland's PFI schools are now at least partially owned offshore
:46:36. > :46:39.Ownership by what are called nominee companies makes it almost impossible
:46:40. > :46:42.to find out who the investors - arguably the real owners -
:46:43. > :46:48.But we've managed to dig out one curious little detail.
:46:49. > :46:51.When you think about Sweden you probably don't think
:46:52. > :46:53.about PFI schools - you probably think
:46:54. > :47:03.The Third National Swedish Pension Fund - which funds state Pensions
:47:04. > :47:07.in the country - owns a stake in Palio 19 - which in turn is one
:47:08. > :47:14.of the funds owning the Edinburgh Schools Partnership.
:47:15. > :47:40.are going to secure the financial future of Sweden's pensioners.
:47:41. > :47:57.schools have become commodities and quite why the Third
:47:58. > :48:00.Swedish pension fund is investing in that is you know, is open
:48:01. > :48:03.to question but clearly they, they haven't done it
:48:04. > :48:06.because they love Edinburgh schools or parents or think Edinburgh
:48:07. > :48:14.teachers are good or because it's a good investment.
:48:15. > :48:17.They do it because they think that's a profitable way of
:48:18. > :48:20.None of the original investors in the Edinburgh Schools Partnership
:48:21. > :48:24.One - Amey - sold out before all the schools were even finished.
:48:25. > :48:27.It was part of a bundle of deals that delivered
:48:28. > :48:28.the equivalent of a 45% annual profit.
:48:29. > :48:31.The Edinburgh Schools Project has proven to be very
:48:32. > :48:34.What's the attraction of schools to infrastructure funds like these?
:48:35. > :48:43.I wanted to get an investor's eye view.
:48:44. > :48:47.And it turns out the attractive part to institutional investors isn't
:48:48. > :48:51.the risky build phase - but the 20 or 30 years where the Council pays
:48:52. > :48:56.So what makes them attractive to investors?
:48:57. > :49:00.I suppose investors see quite a stable return from these.
:49:01. > :49:01.Typically contracts under these PFIs run
:49:02. > :49:09.It's a defined cash return they're going to get from them so you might
:49:10. > :49:13.expect sort of 4.5% per annum and that 4.5% would rise in line
:49:14. > :49:16.with inflation so that is a better return than cash.
:49:17. > :49:17.And effectively they will be state-backed, the money
:49:18. > :49:23.Exactly, so some of the risk has been taken out of it
:49:24. > :49:27.because the Government is backing these initiatives.
:49:28. > :49:30.It's low risk - but Laura Lambie says investors will only get
:49:31. > :49:35.involved if they have the right to sell their shares on.
:49:36. > :49:39.So the attractiveness for a secondary market in something
:49:40. > :49:42.like these infrastructure projects is that somebody who invests
:49:43. > :49:45.at the start doesn't actually have to hold onto that investment
:49:46. > :49:50.It's very much more attractive if at some point throughout that
:49:51. > :49:53.contract they can sell it onto somebody else,
:49:54. > :49:55.so that's really the attractiveness in the secondary
:49:56. > :50:07.It makes this share is more attractive because you are not being
:50:08. > :50:18.curtailed withholding the investment for 20 or 30 years.
:50:19. > :50:23.Any investment is about risk versus reward.
:50:24. > :50:31.So I need to understand better how the taxpayer fares in all this.
:50:32. > :50:34.On the plus side - children get new schools, built and run
:50:35. > :50:40.On the down side, public bodies are committed to massive payments
:50:41. > :50:48.And a recent analysis by Dexter Whitfield showed the five
:50:49. > :50:53.biggest infrastructure funds - including two invested
:50:54. > :50:55.in Edinburgh Schools - effectively paid no tax on collective profits
:50:56. > :51:07.The whole PFI machine really is really a profit machine or wealth
:51:08. > :51:09.machine if you like, and that there are an awful
:51:10. > :51:16.very substantial sums of money out of it and which have
:51:17. > :51:28.got nothing to do with, they're of no benefit
:51:29. > :51:31.to Edinburgh schools, teachers and parents and whatever.
:51:32. > :51:34.Is a situation where one investor can make a profit of over 40% -
:51:35. > :51:37.on a deal that involved Edinburgh schools and other public buildings -
:51:38. > :51:41.40% rate of return is a very high rate of return, there's
:51:42. > :51:46.That's a very high profit but what you've got to look
:51:47. > :51:48.at in terms of the way that the council provided that
:51:49. > :51:50.service was what happens to the project over
:51:51. > :51:54.But does it sound like value for money?
:51:55. > :51:57.Given what's happened, a wall has fallen down, does that
:51:58. > :52:02.Well, we did a comparison, we did a comparison in terms
:52:03. > :52:05.of value for money between public procurement and private procurement
:52:06. > :52:07.and it came out showing that this method provided us
:52:08. > :52:14.Profits aside - can the council really have a relationship with
:52:15. > :52:18.the Edinburgh Schools Partnership if it's a shifting group
:52:19. > :52:34.The whole thing is so opaque that it's incredibly difficult to find
:52:35. > :52:44.And that also ultimately leads to questions about accountability.
:52:45. > :52:50.Does the city of Edinburgh really have control over the schools?
:52:51. > :52:53.And ultimately as that, those schools become even more
:52:54. > :52:56.financialised and are owned increasingly by, become a monopoly
:52:57. > :52:59.in terms of who actually owns them, then that is you know,
:53:00. > :53:00.that's a direct loss of accountability.
:53:01. > :53:03.Does it really matter who owns our PFI schools?
:53:04. > :53:04.Is Dexter Whitfield right that democratic control
:53:05. > :53:11.When I met the Council's Chief Executive he said
:53:12. > :53:13.he was unable to answer questions about construction
:53:14. > :53:18.But we did talk about whether PFI reduced accountability.
:53:19. > :53:20.When you went into a relationship with the Edinburgh Schools
:53:21. > :53:24.Partnership it was envisaged it was a 30 year relationship,
:53:25. > :53:26.that was with construction experts, facility management
:53:27. > :53:41.You now have a contract with the Edinburgh School Partnerships
:53:42. > :53:44.that has been bought and sold 13 times, its owners
:53:45. > :53:47.Is that something that sits comfortably with you?
:53:48. > :53:49.As long as we have a contractual relationship that ties them down
:53:50. > :53:52.to the contract to do the right thing by the schools and make
:53:53. > :54:02.sure our pupils have still got schools and that they're safe
:54:03. > :54:05.and that they are in good condition, then that's something that was
:54:06. > :54:10.Our job is to make sure we manage that contract going forward
:54:11. > :54:15.I think people might be surprised to find out that this
:54:16. > :54:17.is something that's now, this contract with the Edinburgh
:54:18. > :54:20.Schools Partnership is now something that has become a financial
:54:21. > :54:22.commodity when that seems so far removed from the running
:54:23. > :54:25.of the schools and the day to day interaction of pupils
:54:26. > :54:38.The history of PFI has, right across the country, has been
:54:39. > :54:49.about trying to find the right way to finance large
:54:50. > :54:51.scale construction of, usually, public buildings.
:54:52. > :54:54.Where there has been a fault in that, an inherent fault in that,
:54:55. > :54:56.again is something we need to look at.
:54:57. > :55:00.It's common, it's not just Edinburgh that has these
:55:01. > :55:16.And the ins and outs of PFI contracts will be looked
:55:17. > :55:18.at by the Independent Enquiry in our case.
:55:19. > :55:20.And there's new evidence that all isn't well between
:55:21. > :55:22.the Edinburgh Schools Partnership and the original investors
:55:23. > :55:26.It appears there's something else going on behind the scenes.
:55:27. > :55:29.Court documents show that Amey and Miller were successfully sued
:55:30. > :55:31.by a subcontractor for not paying them any profit for building
:55:32. > :55:35.And it now turns out that the Edinburgh Schools
:55:36. > :55:37.Partnership are suing all of the contractors that formed
:55:38. > :55:41.They were due here at the Court of Session today but the case
:55:42. > :55:44.So we still don't know if they are quarrelling over
:55:45. > :55:47.the issues that have come to light or something else that
:55:48. > :55:56.But we've found evidence of problems across the country.
:55:57. > :56:00.We've been able to find potential explanations for the defects that
:56:01. > :56:05.Finding anyone who will take responsibility for the failings
:56:06. > :56:12.All the Edinburgh schools are now repaired.
:56:13. > :56:15.But the crisis might totally change the way we do big
:56:16. > :56:26.There are certain projects that are just
:56:27. > :56:29.so important for us as a society that you can't
:56:30. > :56:34.And especially in my view schools because as I say you're,
:56:35. > :56:38.you're saying to the young people and the children who are occupying
:56:39. > :56:41.the building that you're so important to us that we're taking
:56:42. > :56:43.special care in designing a building which is absolutely fit
:56:44. > :56:51.It's a world of the classroom and then there's a world out
:56:52. > :56:56.here of the financial market where the building of that class,
:56:57. > :56:59.the classroom is located in is being traded like goods and chattels.
:57:00. > :57:02.The Government who is responsible for releasing contracts on behalf
:57:03. > :57:05.of the tax-payer needs to look very very closely at the type of contract
:57:06. > :57:07.and why they're releasing these contracts in the methods
:57:08. > :57:11.What do they believe they'll gain out of that contract?
:57:12. > :57:18.Because it doesn't appear to have been safety and it doesn't appear
:57:19. > :57:25.And surely to God in public buildings in today's age
:57:26. > :57:36.In Oxgangs there's been months of uncertainty but as the summer
:57:37. > :57:44.ends their school should be the safest in the country.
:57:45. > :57:48.Families are back in the school routine - but their faith
:57:49. > :57:56.It seems to be the private sector that's the real winner
:57:57. > :57:59.and it seems that the Edinburgh tax payer is the one that's losing out.
:58:00. > :58:01.I think it still feels that nobody has really been held
:58:02. > :58:13.happened and putting so many children's lives at risk, really.
:58:14. > :58:15.It seems to be a faceless company with international
:58:16. > :58:30.It does make you question decisions that are made on behalf
:58:31. > :59:06.of the people of Scotland and who we trust to make
:59:07. > :59:14.Hello, I'm Alex Bushill with your 90-second update.