An Oxfordshire college has shut down part of one of its buildings after finding collapse-risk concrete.

Abingdon and Witney College confirmed they identified a "small area" of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in one building at their Witney Campus causing one classroom to be closed.

The Department of Education (DfE) identified the college as one of 17 new cases, taking the total to 231 in England as of November 27.

The college is operating as normal and an assessment is currently being carried out by structural engineers.

The spokesperson said: "Following completion of surveys across all our campuses at the start of the academic year, we have identified one small area of RAAC in one building at our Witney campus.

Witney Gazette: Abingdon and Witney College Abingdon and Witney College "As a result, we have closed one classroom. There is no impact on the experience of staff or students at Witney and no risk to their safety.

"The college continues to operate as normal and we’re currently liaising with our structural engineers regarding remedial works required."

Last year, the DfE issued a questionnaire to responsible bodies for all schools in England to ask them to identify whether they suspected they had RAAC.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan told MPs on the Education Select Committee that all responsible bodies of settings with buildings constructed in the target era have now submitted responses.

She said: “So we have 100 per cent of the questionnaires from the settings in the target era – that was the years that could have contained RAAC. All the first surveys are complete.”

Ms Keegan told MPs on Wednesday that “231 currently have confirmed RAAC”.

“Now we do expect there will be some more because, as we go back for follow-up survey work, we will identify a few more,” she said.

The Education Secretary added: “There will only be probably a handful more cases because it’s definitely massively slowed down.”

Witney Gazette: Here's what we know about RAAC on the Isle of Wight.

The DfE’s top official, permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood, told MPs on the committee that “41 settings now have temporary buildings on site”.

She said: “There will still be settings that we’ve identified later in the process that need temporary buildings that won’t have them yet.

“There will also be settings that didn’t need temporary buildings in order to get all pupils back into face-to-face education but might still benefit from some specialist units in order to make sure they can deliver the full curriculum.”

Ms Acland-Hood added: “We’ve got about 110 schools where we think mitigation is the right approach rather than temporary buildings.

“And we’ve also got schools where it may be better for them to share facilities with a nearby school for things like science labs because the lead time on specialist temporary units is long because it tends to be built bespoke by the Portakabin company.”

Scores of schools and colleges in England were told by the Government to fully or partly close their buildings just days before the start of the autumn term amid concerns about collapse-prone RAAC.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “It is pretty embarrassing for the Government that we are now almost at the end of the autumn term and it is still adding schools to this list – and the Secretary of State has today told the Education Committee that this figure will continue to rise.

“We were promised urgency and immediate repairs, and yet there are still schools waiting for mitigations to be put in place.

“This long overdue update shows the continuing disruption facing many pupils, parents and schools.

“It underlines the Government’s failure to set out a timetable for how long this will continue, let alone the long-term plan and fresh investment desperately needed to ensure the school estate is safe and fit for purpose.”