Why it’s time for a new national asbestos strategy

Historically, successive governments’ approaches to reducing asbestos deaths focused on ceasing the use of asbestos materials, thereby eliminating risks to those who manufacture and install the asbestos products. Over the last 20 years, this approach has expanded to include the additional requirement to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that mesothelioma is now being identified in younger age groups than previously recorded. It is increasingly suggested that the relative future risk to the population from asbestos comes not from accidental disturbance or from removal, but from simply occupying premises where asbestos is present. Our presumption for the safe management of asbestos assumes that asbestos can be maintained in good condition. However, this is happening against the backdrop of a £49 billion backlog maintenance programme in the public sector.

The Government should know where asbestos exists within its estates and be able to direct resources appropriately. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Photograph: iStock

In the absence of a national asbestos strategy, it will take decades, if not centuries, to remove all asbestos from the UK. Given that managing asbestos in good condition will be one of the main tools in reducing asbestos risk, it would seem logical that the Government should know where asbestos exists within its estates and be able to direct resources appropriately. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The Department for Education does not know what asbestos is present in schools, nor does it have any details about its condition or the risk it poses to pupils and staff. Yet details are centrally held about the energy performance of these buildings along with backlog maintenance requirements.

The 2022–23 House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee’s inquiry into the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE’s) approach to asbestos management, chaired by Sir Stephen Timms MP, made numerous recommendations. Some are being actioned, others will be subject to a pending formal consultation and others were rejected.

The Government at the time rejected the idea of a central register to hold data on premises containing asbestos. HSE cited The Regulators’ Code, which requires HSE to avoid unnecessary burdens on duty holders. It also cited its previous experience with registers, using the example of the Tower Crane Regulation 2010, stating that the register had not benefited risk management. However, this argument ignored the High-Rise Residential Buildings Register established after Grenfell, as well as the fact that the Government holds and maintains a register of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs). In the first quarter of 2025 alone, 466,000 EPC’s were lodged.

The concept of a central asbestos register has not been progressed since the current Government took power and remains on the ‘too difficult to do’ list. However, the data exists, albeit in various formats, held by duty holders and asbestos surveying companies. It simply needs processing.

At the time of the Work and Pensions Committee’s Inquiry, a small group of accredited organisations agreed to share asbestos survey data to examine the condition and extent of asbestos. Processing this data was complex and time-consuming. As part of this initial work, a commitment was made to review the process and explore how the data could be made more accessible.

To this end, Asbestos Information CIC was formed as a collaboration between numerous UKAS-accredited asbestos surveying and inspection organisations to develop mechanisms for processing large-scale asbestos data and simplifying its presentation. In doing so, we examined information presentation systems and adopted an approach to asbestos risk comparable to the energy ratings seen on appliances and buildings. We call this the ‘Asbestos Information Certificate’ (see example pictured below).

The example Asbestos Information Certificate

The Certificate could be applied at building level or indeed to an entire portfolio of buildings, allowing resources to be directed towards the highest-risk items. It would be possible to generate reports on – for example – all schools in the country to identify where the risk is greatest.

Data processing is undertaken by bespoke algorithms, developed to read asbestos survey data and classify it into distinct risk categories. Currently, the algorithms focus on asbestos material and its condition, but development work has been carried out that will allow property type and occupant demographics to influence risk assessment outcomes, along with the effectiveness of asbestos management processes. This can all be achieved all through the use of bespoke algorithms that could be applied to existing datasets.

In late 2024, Asbestos Information CIC published the results of its data analysis undertaken from reviewing seven million lines of asbestos survey data from almost 400,000 properties, including schools, hospitals, commercial premises and social housing.

The report identified that in the two-year period between May 2022 and April 2024, over 2.5 million asbestos items had been identified within the data provided by the report’s participants.

With this data, we were able to report on the geographical presence of asbestos and map the findings against Parliamentary constituencies, as well as compare asbestos deaths to road deaths in each constituency. These interactive maps are available at: asbestosinformation.org.uk.

An example of the results for a constituency – for the West Suffolk constituency of Nick Timothy MP 

We have demonstrated what is possible with currently available data. This work has been presented to HSE, but we have received no feedback and have recently been referred back to the previous Government’s comments that developing a database would be too costly and difficult.

The information we have gathered has allowed us, for the first time, to estimate how much asbestos is present in the UK: with an estimated total of over 150 million asbestos items.

However, this is only an estimate, as it is difficult to determine exactly how many properties and other building assets (such as common areas, pumping stations and bridges), were built up until 2000 and therefore could contain asbestos.

In recent months, Asbestos Information CIC has linked with the Ordnance Survey (OS) and explored building data held by OS that could serve as the platform for the data we hold. This will also assist in developing common Universal Property Reference Numbers (UPRN) to allow for the exchange of asbestos information for specific addresses, as well as the standardised property types used by OS. Early testing suggests that this link, combined with our algorithms, could provide a solid basis for developing a national asbestos database. This work has been undertaken by a small number of asbestos management consultancies with limited funds; not the resources of the state.

Difficulty and cost have been the two reasons cited for lack of development of a national database. The work to date hasn’t been easy; the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning are concepts that the Government wants us all to embrace, but they have been largely alien to the asbestos industry until now. However, the work completed demonstrates that building a national database is possible, providing there is co-operation from all sectors of the asbestos industry, duty holders and regulators. The challenge of cost needs to be weighed against the benefits.

A recent Freedom of Information Request shared by Richard Blunt, an ambassador for the charity Mesothelioma UK, highlighted that the set-up and development costs of the national EPC register was £2.4 million, with £1.4 million annual running costs covered by lodgement fees of £1.50 for dwellings and £1.70 for commercial buildings. These are insignificant sums given the annual societal cost of asbestos to the UK economy. Given that difficulty and cost are not really the issues, we must question why this is not moving forward.

Could it simply be the fact that once we know the extent of this problem, we would have to act and develop a long-term asbestos abatement strategy that would be added to the backlog maintenance bill?

Asbestos deaths will not reduce to zero, and as time progresses, more deaths will be associated with exposure to asbestos as building occupants. Knowing this, it makes sense to identify where the risk from asbestos is greatest and focus our resources there first. We should not repeat the mistakes of the past by leaving this problem to our children and grandchildren.

Building a national asbestos database is possible; it just requires commitment and co-ordinated effort.

For more information see: asbestosinformation.org.uk