Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what advice his Department provides to early years settings on (a) identifying and (b) removing asbestos from premises.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the lead regulator on managing asbestos and publishes guidance on effective and safe management of asbestos in line with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage requires providers to keep children safe, ensure premises are fit for purpose, are able manage any risks and undertake risk assessments to identify aspects of the environment that need to be checked on a regular basis or be removed or minimised. Providers must comply with requirements of Health and Safety legislation.

The responsibility for managing asbestos in a building rests with the ‘duty holder’. The duty holder being the ‘person or organisation that has clear responsibility for the maintenance or repair of non-domestic premises.’ Duty holders are required to survey their building, create a register of Asbestos Containing Materials (ACMs) and write a management plan detailing the procedures for monitoring the condition of ACMs.

The department publishes guidance (‘Asbestos Management in Schools’) that would be relevant for early years provision in schools and could be applicable for a range of settings. This is intended to help duty holders understand their obligations and to support the effective management of asbestos.

The HSE advice remains that as long as asbestos-containing materials are undamaged, and not in locations where they are vulnerable to damage, they should be managed in situ.