Posted By Bill Elliott Chris - I understand your desire to not waste scant resources, but in my experience the specialists providing sampling also provide the laboratory analysis of the samples inclusive in the cost - have you considered how you would get samples analysed when and if you had someone trained on your own staff to take samples?

Posted By Stuart Nagle Chris. Good idea. I did it myself and saved the company money. As far as EL insurance is concerned the feed back we got was positive, having a qualified asbestos surveyor on site was regarded as a positive H&S move. I suggest you contact the British Occupational Hygiene Society (tel 01332 298 087 - email: admin@bohs.org) and get details of training suppliers. The course I did was good (3 days) but tough. The training is in 2 parts - Part 1 of the course is theory with some practical use of equipment employed in asbestos sampling, and for part 2 (to get the certificate) you have to undertake at least 3 surveys and submit reports for verification. The P402 certificate is only awarded for successful completion of parts 1 and 2. I did the 3 surveys on our sites and submitted the reports for my 'part 2' which was accepted and the certificate awarded. I learned a lot and found the course very good. I would recommend that anyone going on the course however undertakes pre course reading of all the available asbestos regs and docuemnts and familiarises themselves with MDHS 100 and MDHS 77 as it can be heavy going otherwise. Most other on the course were laboratory types already working in the asbestos/laboratory ind/business Course costs were about £300 to £400 and following this I purchased a 'heppa' filter vacuum £370 and spent approximately a further £200 on asbestos disposal bags, asbestos sampling tool kit and some other bits. In total about £1000. Further to this I visited a UKAS accredited laboratory near to our office who do asbestos sample testing and agreed a 'per sample' price of £12.50 with them. the average cost of undertaking an asbestos survey and getting samples anylised was far less than the £2000 to £3000 per site quoted by asbestos consultants, and on average 30 samples were taken from each site (x 3 = 90 samples) and the cost here was £1125 All in all, including my time and travel, we saved approximately £6000 by doing it ourselves - all costs accounted for.... If you need any further advice email me...