Asbestos in education

Why Asbestos still matters

Please read our guidance on why asbestos is still an issue in education, how it is still an issue, an overview of the legal position and UCU policy:  Asbestos guidance for UCU members, activists and safety representatives [150kb]

Asbestos checklist

The Joint Union Asbestos Committee (JUAC) campaigns to protect education workers and pupils from the dangers of asbestos in education buildings. All the education unions covering England and Wales, including UCU, are part of JUAC. Their goal is government-funded removal of asbestos from all educational buildings and until that happens, we do all we can to raise awareness of the dangers of asbestos and help schools and colleges manage it as safely as possible. This checklist was produced to help in this respect. [104kb]

Factsheets

• Asbestos diseases and their regulation - UCU factsheet [106kb]
• The management of asbestos in the workplace: regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 - UCU factsheet [196kb]

All-party committee report on asbestos in schools

Many further and higher education (especially post-92 institutions) would have had similar sorts of prefab buildings as schools, left-over from the old local authority days. Despite lots of new build and selling-off since incorporation, some of these may still be in use. You can download the parliamentary all-party report here:

• Asbestos in schools - all-party parliamentary report, Feb 2012 [81kb]

See also the related links below.