Calls for a UK-wide audit of asbestos in schools have increased after councils in Wales were ordered to compile information on the presence of the deadly material.
It comes after the temporary closure earlier this month of Cwmcarn High School in Caerphilly after concerns about asbestos came to light.
The school re-opened gradually this week but Wales’s education minister Leighton Andrews has now asked all local authorities to report on asbestos levels in their schools.
The Joint Union Asbestos Committee (JUAC) has been pushing for a UK-wide audit for some time to establish the extent and condition of asbestos-containing materials in schools.
However, in his response to a Parliamentary question in the aftermath of the CwmCarn closure, the UK schools minister David Laws maintained that a national audit is “unnecessary”.
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