AQW 24918/17-22

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 01/11/2021
Answered On Date: 18/11/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities what health and safety standards are used by Libraries NI to ensure that Libraries are safe for public use; and to list the dates when Libraries NI last completed a survey of each Library to ensure the buildings are sound, free from crumbling walls, damp and mould.

Answer:

The primary standard applied by Libraries NI in ensuring the health and safety of its employees and members of the public using library facilities is compliance with the Health and Safety at Work (NI) Order 1978.

Libraries NI applies a risk assessment based approach to the management of health and safety across the public library estate with corporate and individual roles and responsibilities set out in the Libraries NI Health and Safety Policy.

The monitoring of property condition is a routine and regular activity undertaken at a local level across all 96 libraries throughout the year. Individual Branch Library Managers are responsible for the premises and activities under their control, including the routine inspection of facilities, reporting of property maintenance issues and the identification of potential health and safety risks. A central assets management team, within Libraries NI, engages with local Branch Library Managers in respect of matters raised and commissions works to be carried out as appropriate.