UKNAR

About UKNAR

Asbestos is the greatest cause of workplace deaths in the UK. Over 5,000 people die each year due to asbestos related diseases. Whilst the use of asbestos in the UK was banned in 1999, It remains in situ in over 2 million buildings and 500,000 workplaces. Over 75% of schools, hospitals and public buildings still contain asbestos.

Every year, thousands of contractors and others working in these buildings are accidently exposed to asbestos fibres. In many cases this is because they are either unaware of its presence or its dangers.

Despite clear legal requirements placed upon the building’s dutyholder and their own employers, contractors and staff in these buildings have often not seen the asbestos register which shows where the asbestos is hidden. This ignorance puts themselves and others at risk of accidentally disturbing the asbestos and releasing invisible fibres which when inhaled can result 20-40 years later in the UK’s deadliest, incurable common cancer: mesothelioma.

UKNAR CIC (UK National Asbestos Register) is a not-for-profit social enterprise founded to help management and dutyholders manage asbestos simply and safely while better informing and educating those people who may be at risk. UKNAR’s primary aim is to protect people from unnecessary and potentially deadly exposure to asbestos fibres.

UKNAR wanted to develop a national asbestos database that would allow existing and up-to-date asbestos registers to be uploaded and linked to their Asbestos SMART system. This would enable dutyholders to make key asbestos information instantly and freely available to contractors and others that need it. Simply by scanning a QR code at site contractors would be able to easily check the status and the location of any known asbestos in a building before starting works that could result in its disturbance and take measures to protect themselves.

You’ve been working with Wubbleyou for 2 years now. Why is this long-term partnership important to your business?

Alongside Wubbleyou, we have developed Asbestos SMART Manager (ASM), a bespoke system which stores a client’s asbestos register and associated data and allows our UKNAR team - and the client - to access and interact with important building information. When someone scans the QR code on our Asbestos Management Notice, this links to UKNAR’s ASM to provide the details they require, 24/7, 365 days per year.

As we built this system from the ground up, we needed to partner with a team who could develop a minimal viable product that was able to expand and evolve as we learnt more about what our clients really needed and what would serve them best.

It was important for us to work with a developer who understood the not-for-profit, social enterprise environment and that to be a disruptor in this marketplace, we needed clients to be impressed with the simplicity of our message and the ease with which our system can be used. We believe Wubbleyou have helped us do this, and we trust that they will be there for our future growth.

We think Wubbleyou ‘get’ us, that they care about what we do and why we are doing it. They offer a unique perspective in turning our ideas into usable tech and offering value for money.

What impact has the partnership had on the industry and the dangers of Asbestos in the UK?

We now have over 1400 properties on our system, whereby the asbestos register can be easily accessed via a QR code by staff, visitors and contractors working in the building. This includes over 200 schools, which means that in addition to the many thousands of contractors who visit these buildings our system is also better protecting over 100,000 children and 13,000 teachers in the UK. It is estimated that over 5,000 former pupils and known that over 400 teachers have died from exposure to asbestos within their schools. If we can prevent just one person from developing asbestos-related cancer, which has such a poor survival rate, then everyone wins.

By working with Open Asbestos, developed by Robin Bennett and the team at Start Software, we have also ensured that Asbestos SMART is one of the first systems capable of exchanging asbestos-related data and documents safely and securely with other leading systems. Wubbleyou were very responsive in facilitating this and understanding the impact it can have on the wider asbestos industry and information sharing. Previously, the industry was not interested nor open to this concept.

From developing the Asbestos SMART platform, and through UKNAR’s campaigning and educational work, we have been able to shift mindsets. We have worked with many partners to get the second reading of the Asbestos Register private members bill heard in parliament and commitment towards building a national asbestos register in the future.

The fact that, with Wubbleyou’s help, we have been able to develop a prototype national asbestos register with minimal resources has meant that we can bring our experience to the table and help shape future developments when parliament is ready to move forward.

How has the partnership helped you achieve your strategy/goals as a CIC?

Two of UKNAR’s ultimate aims are to change the culture, making it the norm for people to ask for, see and understand the asbestos register for their workplaces and for 80% of public sector buildings that contain ACMs to be on a digital, UK National Asbestos Register.

Although we are still a long way from achieving this hugely ambitious goal, by working together with Wubbleyou, we have been able to create a simple, successful and popular Asbestos SMART platform that allows users to easily access a simple asbestos register on demand. This helps to demonstrate to everyone that what was previously rejected some years ago as impossible or too costly, is now perfectly feasible. This is why a national asbestos register was one of the key recommendations made by the Parliamentary Inquiry into the UK’s management of asbestos and passed its first reading in Parliament, in late 2023. In terms of the UK’s National Asbestos Register, we now have a base, scalable working model ready for further development.

Therefore, we think that between ourselves and Wubbleyou, we are in good shape to meet the many challenges that comes from shifting mindsets and playing our part in preventing thousands of asbestos exposures in the UK for everyone’s benefit.

Why is the partnership important to you and your strategy moving forward?

As a not-for-profit organisation trying to “change the world” and make it a better place we have to work collaboratively, flexibly and inexpensively with a wide range of organisations and stakeholders, many with their own IT systems. It is very big challenge and we believe we need a partner not just with the IT capabilities to deliver what is required but also has the values and sensitivity to do so in a collaborative and cost-effective way.