We have a school that has a significant number of AIB board wall and ceiling panelling in the majority of corridors and stairwells. It is checked regulalrly and incidents of damage are few and far in between. 

However, a panel was kicked "accidently" by a pupil resulting in a break. His outer garments were removed and bagged where it happended. The area was sealed and and the child taken to a shower in the school to get washed. A company came out to carry out a repair and carry out clearance air test where the board had been damaged. 

My questions are:

1) Should the company have carried out a clearance air test in the shower area given that it was AIB?

2) Given that it was AIB would it have been better to ask the company company to bring a full decontamination unit including a shower so that the pupil didnt have to go through the school causing possible contamination elsewhere?  

Air clearance certificates are only required for licenced asbestos removal under CAR.

AIB is towards the lower risk on the spectrum but there should be a management report that should offer further information. The removal company are also duty bound to carry out an asbestos risk assessment.

I think there is a much bigger issue, the fact that a student was able to be exposed to asbestos by a predictable act in a school. Is the risk of exposure being inadequately managed and I would question if the asbestos is adequately protected against damage.

Weather it is “Non-licensable work”, “Notifiable non-licensed work” or “licensed work” is subject to the risk of airborne fibres.

You cannot say AIB is automatically licensable and notifiable asbestos containing material. If this was the case why are there HSE “asbestos essentials” guidance sheets saying “Non-licensed tasks”, for example:-

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a2.pdf

But isn't that the 'problem'? Companies going 'over and above' when they don't need to? In a way doesn't this damage the message we should be sending to people? 

An example - a few years ago my parent's home was flooded by heavy rain, carpets taken up and floors needed to be dried out. 40+ year old vinyl floor tiles were removed (these had been saturated and some were floating about). Company arrived and donned full suits / respirators and enclosed the hall area in a nice plastic bubble and took the offending tiles away .. .. surely this sort of 'above and beyond' is counter productive and costing society some serious ££s

PS I do believe that asbestos can be dangerous, depending on circumstances and condition

Thanks for the answers guys.

Incident details: Pupil kicks and breaks an AIB panel in a corridor

A HSE Inspector did come out to the school a few weeks after the incident. Her recommendations and advice were as follows:

1)     She was satisfied with the action of getting the pupil to take off his outer garments at the scene, and be taken to the shower block to be showered. However she did say a clearance air test should have been carried out in the shower area. I suppose the argument here is that is it reasonable to expect a 12 year old pupil to wait at the scene (for possibly hours) for a decontamination unit to be deployed. Having said that I have spoken to a couple of asbestos removal contractors who advised that a decontamination unit should have been used to eliminate the risk of contaminating other areas.

2)      She also stated “ You should ensure those identified in your plan as having responsibility for managing asbestos receive adequate information, instruction and training for their role.” The school has been assigned a Local Authority building manager (not based at the school) who has a P402 qualification. This person, along with the Council’s Health and Safety Section provides training to school staff on asbestos awareness, how to carry out visual checks of ACMs and how to deploy the emergency procedures in the AMP. However, no one in the school has a formal qualification in asbestos management i.e. P405 .

On this what do people think ? Should someone in the school have the P405 or go on the one day asbestos management course run by the HSL or is the training provided by the Local Authority good enough if it covers all bases?

Thanks