Cost of managing asbestos in schools

The request was partially successful.

Dear Hull City Council,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide me with the following information:
1. the amount of money spent on asbestos management in schools between 2006 and 2016 (to include the costs of surveys, staff training and work to enclose asbestos within schools)
2. the amount of money spent on asbestos removal from schools between 2006 and 2016
3. the amount of money spent on fines for breaches in the safe management of asbestos in schools between 2006 and 2016
4. funding sought from the Department of Education and the Education Funding Authority for the management and removal of asbestos from schools between 2006 and 2016
5. the amount of funding approved by the Department of Education and the Education Funding Authority for the management and removal of asbestos from schools between 2006 and 2016
6. the projected budget for future management of asbestos in schools between 2017 and 2027

I understand that under the Act I am entitled to a response within 20 working days of your receipt of this request. Some parts of the request may be easier to answer than others. Should this be the case, I request that you release information as soon as possible.

If my request is denied in whole or in part, I ask that you justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the Act. I will also expect you to release all non-exempt material. I reserve the right to appeal your decision to withhold any information or to charge excessive
fees.

I would prefer to receive the information electronically.

If you require any clarification, please contact me in accordance with your duty under Section 16 to provide advice and assistance if you find any aspect of this FOI request problematic.

Please acknowledge receipt of this request by email. I look forward to receiving the information in the near future.

Yours faithfully,

Lucie Stephens

Information Governance, Hull City Council

We acknowledge receipt of your request for information which we will
process in accordance with the appropriate legislation below:

Freedom of Information Act
This covers general recorded information that is held by the Council.
Examples: budget information, staff structures, details of contracts etc

From the next working day that the request is received we have 20 working
days to respond. This does not take in to account any clarification we may
require or if we need to consider the Public Interest Test which allows us
up to a maximum of 20 additional working days.

Environmental Information Regulation
This covers all environmental information held by the Council.
Examples: Planning Applications, details of proposed road works, flood
information, pollution information etc.

From the next working day that the request is received we have 20 working
days to respond.

Section 7 of the Data Protection Act (Subject Access Request)
This section of the Data Protection legislation only relates to requests
for information about the requester or a client if you are acting on their
behalf.
Examples: Personnel file, Housing file, Council Tax/Housing Benefit
information etc.

We have 40 days from the date of receipt to respond.

Information Governance Team
Town Clerk's Service
Hull City Council
The Guildhall

 

Dear Hull City Council,

You confirmed receipt of my email on 5th September and advised I would need to wait 20 working days. Your response is now overdue. Please confirm when you will be sending me the information.

Yours faithfully,

Lucie Stephens

Information Governance, Hull City Council

Dear Ms Stephens

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Information Request - 001497/17

 

With regard to your Freedom of Information request received on 5 September
2017, please accept our apologies for the delay and find our response
below.

 

 

1. the amount of money spent on asbestos management in schools between
2006 and 2016 (to include the costs of surveys, staff training and work to
enclose asbestos within schools)

2. the amount of money spent on asbestos removal from schools between 2006
and 2016

3. the amount of money spent on fines for breaches in the safe management
of asbestos in schools between 2006 and 2016

4. funding sought from the Department of Education and the Education
Funding Authority for the management and removal of asbestos from schools
between 2006 and 2016

5. the amount of funding approved by the Department of Education and the
Education Funding Authority for the management and removal of asbestos
from schools between 2006 and 2016

6. the projected budget for future management of asbestos in schools
between 2017 and 2027

 

 

We must inform you that, in accordance with Section 12 of the Freedom of
Information Act, we are unable to answer your enquiry without exceeding
the time/costs limits under the Act.  Where a local authority reasonably
estimates that it would cost more than £450 (or 18 hours of staff time) to
fulfil a request it is not required to do so.

 

It is estimated that your request will be above the £450 time/cost limit
because of the amount of time needed to provide the level of detail you
have requested.  Information relating to costs on asbestos in schools is
not held in one place, but between the Council, each individual school and
NPS who are the Councils property maintenance contractor.  Therefore, in
order to retrieve and extract the relevant costs for the past 10 years
from each of these areas and to collate them accurately to answer your
questions would take well in excess of the 18 hour time/cost limit as
explained above.

 

We have however provided a list of schools within our authority area that
contain asbestos below (as of 14/07/16).  Further information including
contact details can be found on our website at the following link:
[1]http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/portal/page-_pa...

 

Adelaide Primary

Appleton Primary

Biggin Hill primary

Bricknell Primary

Broadacre Primary

Buckingham Primary

Bude Park Primary

Cavendish Primary

Chiltern Primary

Cleeve Primary

Clifton Primary

Endsleigh RC Primary

Estcourt Primary

Francis Askew Primary

Gillshill Primary

Hall Road Primary

Highlands Primary

Ings Primary

Longhill Primary

Marfleet Primary

Mountbatten Primary

Oldfleet Primary

Paisley Primary

The Parks Primary

Parkstone Primary

Pearson Primary

Priory Primary

Rokeby Primary

Sidmouth Primary

Southcoates Primary

Spring Cottage Primary

St Andrew’s CE

St Anthony’s RC

St Charles RC Primary

St James’ CE Primary

St Mary Queen of Martyrs

St Nicholas’ Primary

St Richard’s RC Primary

St Thomas More RC Primary

St Vincent RC Primary

Stepney Primary

Stockwell Primary

Sutton Park Primary

Thanet Primary

Thoresby Primary

Thorpark Primary

Wansbeck Primary

Westcott Primary

Wheeler Primary

Malet Lambert

St Mary’s Sports College

Newland School for Girls

Northcott Special School

Ashwell Pupil Referall Unit

Rise Academy (formally Fountain House) Pupil Referall Unit

 

 

We hope that you will be satisfied with our response and should you
require any further information then please do not hesitate to contact
us. 

 

 

Should you wish to complain about our response in any way this must
initially be done by e-mailing [2][Hull City Council request email] or by
contacting us at The Information Governance Team, The Guildhall, Alfred
Gelder Street, Hull, HU1 2AA.

 

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review then you
may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the
government body established to enforce the legislation.

 

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Web site: [3]https://ico.org.uk

Report a concern: [4]https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

Email: [5][email address]

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate)

 

ICO states that any emails you choose to send to them, or that they send
to you, are not secure as email messages can be intercepted.  ICO asks
that you include a contact telephone number on any emails you send to
them. 

 

The Council’s Freedom of Information Policy, which includes the charging
policy, is available on request and from the web site
[6]www.hullcc.gov.uk.  Also available is a booklet on ‘Accessing
Information from Hull City Council’ which explains how to request
information and your rights (according to the Data Protection Act 1998 and
The Freedom of Information Act 2000).

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

 

Information Governance

Town Clerk's Service

Hull City Council

Tel: 01482 300300

<img style="width:300px;height:56px" width="100" height="100"
src="http://static.hullcc.gov.uk/images/HULL_...
border=0/>

Dear Information Governance,

Your response is extremely disappointing. It causes me great concern that you appear to have no centralised oversight of the extent of asbestos in local schools, how it is managed and how to secure funding to get it removed. While I can accept that there may be a time commitment required to compile the information to questions 1 and 2, I can't see that there would be a significant amount of time required to provide answers to the questions below;
3. the amount of money spent on fines for breaches in the safe management of asbestos in schools between 2006 and 2016
4. funding sought from the Department of Education and the Education Funding Authority for the management and removal of asbestos from schools between 2006 and 2016
5. the amount of funding approved by the Department of Education and the Education Funding Authority for the management and removal of asbestos from schools between 2006 and 2016
6. the projected budget for future management of asbestos in schools between 2017 and 2027

I would appreciate a response to the questions below.
With best wishes,

Lucie Stephens

Information Governance, Hull City Council

Dear Ms Stephens

Thank you for your email below and apologies for the delay in getting back to you. I have again liaised with our Major Projects team, Children’s Services and Health & Safety and respond as follows.

Academies have separate funding streams available to them, the details of which the local authority will not be aware of, therefore you would have to contact the Academies individually as we would not be expected to hold their information on these matters.

3. the amount of money spent on fines for breaches in the safe management of asbestos in schools between 2006 and 2016

We are not aware of any fines or breaches in the safe management of asbestos between 2006 and 2016.

4. funding sought from the Department of Education and the Education Funding Authority for the management and removal of asbestos from schools between 2006 and 2016
5. the amount of funding approved by the Department of Education and the Education Funding Authority for the management and removal of asbestos from schools between 2006 and 2016

If the Major Projects and Infrastructure team undertake a condition (maintenance) project or a Basic Need (expansion or remodelling) of a school, any asbestos removal is incorporated into the project cost. There is no separate funding.

6. the projected budget for future management of asbestos in schools between 2017 and 2027

As explained at questions 4 and 5 above, there is no separate budget for asbestos and we do not hold any recorded information that would enable us to answer question 6.

Yours sincerely

Information Governance
Town Clerk's Service
Hull City Council
Tel: 01482 300300

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