3: PAC conclusion: The Department still does not understand well enough the conditions of the school estate, meaning it does not know whether pupils have access to the learning facilities they need. 3: PAC recommendation: The Department should, within the next year, collect and publish data on pupils’ access to learning facilities, and the condition of such amenities, for example IT provision, science and technology labs, arts facilities and associated equipment. The Department should report how much capital investment is required to provide all pupils with access to such core facilities. 3.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 3.2 The department has noted the Committee’s recommendation. The department recently piloted central delivery of Net Capacity Assessments (NCA), which assess the teaching space (size, type and use of rooms) in individual schools. It is developing plans to roll-out centralised delivery of NCA across secondary and special schools from 2023. As well as providing a more up-to-date and accurate picture of capacity, there will be opportunities to explore joining-up NCA and condition data to improve the department’s intelligence on the quality of provision across the estate. 3.3 All new buildings delivered by the department provide suitable accommodation built to high standards. The department recognises that the suitability of buildings can be a particular challenge for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). £2.6 billion has been committed over the next three years to provide new places and make existing provision suitable and accessible for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision. 3.4 The department, however, continues to prioritise ensuring sufficient school places and that the estate remains in a safe, operational condition. That is why both departmental and local authority resources are focused on collecting essential data to support these priorities. In addition to collecting annual school capacity data, the department has significantly improved its understanding of the condition of the school estate, collecting consistent, comparable data through the Property Data Survey (2012-2014) and the Condition Data Collection (2017-19). The department has published summary findings from these surveys and shared detailed reports with schools and their responsible bodies. The Condition Data Collection 2 is collecting updated data through to 2026.