Asbestos in schools: an inspector calls
Monday 25 September marks World Lung Day, the international awareness day to help educate and promote lung health. In line with this, the HSE will be carrying out a programme of inspections of primary and secondary schools in England, Scotland and Wales from October 2023 onwards to assess how schools are managing the risks from asbestos within the school estate and meeting the ‘duty to manage’ (DTM) requirements under Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR).
The Regulations place duties on those with responsibility for the maintenance of work premises, including schools, to manage the risk from asbestos. For the majority of schools, this will be the employer.
Who will be carrying out the inspections?
The visits will be carried out by HSE inspectors, who will contact the school before visiting to arrange a suitable date and time for the inspection.
They will need to speak to someone with knowledge of how asbestos is managed by the school and may also ask to see certain documentation in advance of the visit, for example your asbestos register and management plan.
The inspector may take action if they find you’re breaking the law during the visit. They may also tell you to stop a dangerous activity in your workplace immediately.
After the inspector has finished looking round your workplace, they might:
- Offer advice (either verbal or in writing).
- Give you a notification of contravention.
- Give you an improvement notice.
- Gve you a prohibition notice.
- Prosecute you for breaching health and safety laws.
A notification of contravention (NoC) is a document or letter that tells you about health and safety laws you’ve broken. It also explains how you’ve broken them. A NoC will tell you what you need to do to stop breaking the law.
An improvement notice will tell you:
- What’s wrong;
- Any changes you need to make to put things right; and
- How long you have to make those changes.
You may get a prohibition notice if there is a risk of serious personal injury now or in the future. A prohibition notice orders you to stop doing something until you have made it safe to continue.
See the HSE’s guidance on what to expect when an inspector calls for further information.
What should schools do to prepare for these inspections?
In advance of the inspections, schools may wish to review their current arrangements and check that they are meeting their duties under CAR, which include requirements to:
- Take reasonable steps to find out if there are asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) in the school premises, and if so, the amount, where it is, and what condition it is in.
- Presume materials contain asbestos unless there is strong evidence that they do not.
- Make, and keep up to date, a record of the location and condition of any ACMs - or materials which are presumed to contain asbestos.
- Assess the risk of anyone being exposed to fibres from the materials identified.
- Prepare an asbestos management plan (AMP) that sets out in detail how the risks from these materials will be managed.
- Take the necessary steps to put the plan into action.
- Periodically review and monitor the plan and the arrangements, and act on the findings, so the plan and arrangements remain relevant and up to date.
- Provide information on the location and condition of the materials to anyone who is liable to work on, or disturb them.
Further information
Schools may want to consider the findings from the HSE’s recent 2022/23 inspection campaign looking at the management of asbestos in school buildings to ensure that their management arrangements remain effective and that common areas of improvement identified during these visits have been addressed.
In light of these inspections, the HSE also recently updated its Asbestos management – checklist for schools which contains a useful summary of the key measures that schools should have in place to manage the risks from asbestos effectively.
Follow the below links for more information and resources about managing asbestos in schools:
- Asbestos in schools
- Managing asbestos in schools - Frequently asked questions
- Managing asbestos in buildings: A brief guide
- Department for Education - Managing asbestos in your school or college (gov.uk)
- Welsh Government – Asbestos management in schools (gov.wales)
International Workplace's Asbestos Awareness course helps develop the learner’s understanding of how to manage asbestos in the workplace and recognise the risks. The content of the training is stipulated in the L143 Approved Code of Practice for the Control of Asbestos Regulations (CAR) 2012. Anyone liable to disturb the fabric of a building or anyone supervising those people must have awareness training. Find out more here.
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