The Health & Safety Executive has denied that its ‘Hidden Killer’ asbestos awareness campaign has been cancelled.

Yesterday, construction union UCATT issued a press release saying that it had discovered the campaign had fallen victim to budget cuts and called for it to be revived. (Click here for original report.)

The HSE has now responded by asserting that the campaign is simply “between phases”.

Karen Clayton, director of the HSE’s long latency health risks division said: “HSE's Asbestos: the Hidden Killer campaign has not been cancelled as it has been claimed. It is usual for us to take stock at the end of each phase of our campaigns to see how successful they have been. Hidden Killer is currently in one of those periods.

“All the Hidden Killer information is freely available online and we continue to publicise every asbestos prosecution we take to raise awareness of the issue and the threat posed to high risk groups such as tradesmen.

“We continue to actively work with a range of stakeholders to further increase awareness of the risks of asbestos and the action tradesmen should take to protect themselves, reinforcing the messages of Hidden Killer.

“HSE will continue to make tackling asbestos a priority, both in terms of our communications activity and our enforcement work.”

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