MoD asbestos contamination

Thanks to blog reader David Newton, for supplying a copy of the response to the FOI request he made about asbestos contimnated files at the MoD. In particlular David was interested in Chiefs of Staff Committee papers that were effected.

You download the full reponse as a word document: newtonredact.docnewtonredact.doc

The document states: "In view of the risks associated from asbestos the files affected were isolated and safeguarded; in accordance with health and safety guidance they have been securely stored in plastic sacks and placed in crates to permit safe handling and have now been relocated to a secure MOD site located on the periphery of London.

In all some 63,000 files are affected, estimated to contain up to 10 million pages. They are contained in 3000 large crates.

....The pilot project will see, over a period of 2/3 months, the scanning of 50,000 to 75,000 pages. Documents have been identified for scanning on the basis of their variety, a mixed collection of papers ranging from conventional files, bound volumes (including the 1974 COS volumes) and reports to fully test the scanning regime."