Cost of managing asbestos in schools

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Lancashire County Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Lancashire County 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

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

 

 

 

Dear Ms Stephens,

 

Request for information

 

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your email dated 05/09/17, in which
you request the disclosure of information.

 

I can confirm that your enquiry will now be assigned to an officer who
will commence a search for the information you require and they will
respond in due course. The deadline date for issuing you with full
response is 03/10/17. We will endeavour to provide a response well in
advance of this date, however, should we envisage any delays, or require
more details from you, we will contact you immediately.

 

If you have any queries about the above, please do not hesitate to contact
us, quoting ref. 936.1292

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Governance Team

Legal and Democratic Service

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

PR1 8XJ

[1][email address]

[2]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Dear Ms Stephens,

 

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

 

Further to your email we are now in a position to respond to your enquiry
regarding asbestos in schools. Please allow us to apologise for the
lengthy delay in providing this response.

 

With regard to questions 4, 5 and 6, asbestos removal is funded through
the schools condition allocation (see table below) which is grant monies
from the Department for Education. Asbestos removal is one factor
addressed through this grant which covers approximately 100 projects each
year. To retrospectively identify spend against the questions you have set
out and for the timeframe requested would incur a commitment of resources
in excess of the limit of £450 set by the Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (SI No. 3244 of
2004), which equates to 18 hours of work. Section 12(1) of the Freedom of
Information Act provides that a public authority is not obliged to comply
with a request where to do so would exceed such a limit.

 

It is not possible to forecast spend as this is dependent on the DfE grant
allocation in future years which is undetermined.

 

SCHOOLS CONDITION ALLOCATION

 

CONDITION FUNDING AVAILABLE £000 
Condition Allocation 2016/17 11,209
Condition Allocation 2017/18 10,956
Total available     22,165

 

We are sorry we have been unable to assist you further on this occasion.
In the event that you wish to complain about the manner in which your
enquiry has been handled, or want to request a review of a decision to
withhold information, you should write in the first instance to the
Information Governance Manager, Information Governance Team, Lancashire
County Council, PO Box 78, County Hall, Preston PR1 8XJ, or email
[1][Lancashire County Council request email]. If, after this stage, you
remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer the matter to the
Information Commissioner, whose contact details are as follows:

 

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

Telephone:    0303 123 1113

Website:       [2]http://www.ico.org.uk/

 

If you have any queries regarding our response, or you require any
additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Information Governance Team

Legal and Democratic Service

Lancashire County Council

[3][email address]

 

Dear Freedom of Information,

Thank you for your response. I see that you are refusing to release figures in response to questions 4, 5 and 6 due to time constraints. I am not clear which question the figures that you have released are in response to? Please can you clarify.

Yours sincerely,

Lucie Stephens