February 6th 2014
Schools Property Data Survey Programme – what a wasted opportunity
The Government announced they will need to spend an extra £6m on a survey of 8000 school[1]s in an attempt to assess the condition of school buildings across England. However, the survey will not examine the presence of any asbestos school buildings. Any assessment is purely cosmetic and does not address the systemic failings of this Government to address the real dangers to school pupils and staff.
This is an important omission as it is recognised that over 75% of UK schools still contain asbestos
Julie Winn, Chair of the Joint Union Asbestos Committee (JUAC) and member of the Asbestos in Schools Group said:
“The extension of the Property Data Survey Programme is a golden opportunity for the Government to collect data centrally on the presence and management plans for asbestos in UK schools. Without this information, the scale of the problem cannot be known and proportionate resources cannot be planned for and allocated. Why has asbestos been inexplicably excluded from this survey? We believe that it suggests that the Government are burying their heads and do not want to know the true scale of the problem and how much it will cost to fix it?”
Notes for editors
[1] This equates to a cost of £750 per school
JUAC (Joint Union Asbestos Committee) is a trade union campaigning committee comprising the six main education unions and four main support staff unions.
The group’s aim is to make all UK schools and colleges safe from the dangers of asbestos. All the unions in JUAC are members of the Asbestos in Schools (AIS) campaign.
For more information please contact:
Julie Winn
Chair JUAC
jwinn@juac.co.uk
Tel: 07920514254
Michael Lees
Asbestos in Schools