Schools: Asbestos

(asked on 22nd October 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that all schools participate in the Asbestos Management Assurance Process.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 30th October 2019

The Asbestos Management Assurance Process (AMAP) was a voluntary data collection which had an excellent response rate of over 88%. All state-funded schools and academies in England, and their respective responsible bodies, were expected to participate and the Department is contacting the schools that did not respond to the AMAP to ask them to do so.

The AMAP remains open for schools to update their information and the Department does not intend to publish information provided by individual schools and responsible bodies. This data was not collected on the basis that school responses would be published. Doing so would be likely to increase the burdens on school leadership teams and discourage future participation in data collections, undermining the Department’s ability to collect information to support schools in the effective management of asbestos.

The Department published a detailed report on the findings from the AMAP in July 2019. Where the AMAP identified a concern, the Department is continuing to work with schools and duty holders directly, and with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as a regulator, to offer support. Where appropriate, this might include targeted inspections by the HSE to ensure they are taking remedial action to address issues in their asbestos management.

The Department is also sharing guidance written specifically for schools on asbestos management to support schools and responsible bodies to meet their duties under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

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