The Validation and Innovation Point Asbestos (VIP) is an independent body that advises the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment on whether or not an asbestos removal method can be regarded as having been validated nationally. This could involve a new method, technique, piece of equipment or machine. The VIP also assesses existing methods that have not been validated for national use yet. The remit of the VIP is to carefully and quickly assess these innovative methods, so that they are marketed without delay and innovation is rewarded. The VIP arrives at its advice independently: it assesses requests separately to interests in a certain innovation or in the asbestos-inventory, removal or final-assessment processes. The VIP approach is transparent and its advice is made publicly available.

The VIP consists of an independent Chair, a permanent pool of independent experts on the subject of exposure and/or how exposure removal methods work and a Secretary. Whenever a request is to be processed, an assessment team is put together, consisting of the Chair and (in principle) four to six experts with different areas of expertise. This team is supported by the Secretary. TNO (The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) and the RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) play an important role in the VIP. TNO is a permanent part of the VIP and the supplier of expertise for assessments unless TNO has previously been involved in a request that is to be assessed. TNO also ensures the correct implementation of VIP advice in the SMA-rt web application (SMA-rt). RIVM supplies the VIP with a Secretary and members for the permanent pool of experts and acts as the facilitating contractor for operational management of the VIP. 

The VIP assesses innovative methods for the removal of asbestos. They could involve a new method, technique, piece of equipment or machine. The VIP also assesses existing methods that have not been validated for national use yet. It is not currently possible to assess innovative methods asbestos inventories or final assessments.

Yes, this is possible if you have information that shows an existing method can be approved for a risk class other than the one currently applicable. This might be the case if you have carried out a number of project validations, for example. If you would like to have an existing method validated for national use, your request must comply with the requirements of the VIP assessment framework. 

Yes, it does. 

Yes, they can, provided their requests meet the criteria the VIP imposes on dossiers. Obviously, foreign requests also need to comply with Dutch legislation and regulations, including health and safety regulations, too. Added to this, if a request contains exposure studies that were not conducted in the Netherlands, the requester will need to demonstrate that they are representative of the Dutch situation in terms of weather conditions, type of activity, types of building/system and asbestos-containing material, etc. Dossiers must also meet the criteria the VIP imposes on dossier structure and information requirements. Foreign dossiers will preferably have been prepared in Dutch as well. 

Yes. You can include a general description of information that is to be regarded as confidential company information in the relevant sections of the dossier. The confidential company information itself can then be uploaded separately via the VIP website and will not be used to substantiate the assessment publicly. However, the general description must be such that readers of the assessment gain a good idea of the method in question.  

No, you do not have to pay to have your request assessed. 

Yes, the VIP prepares a draft assessment for the public consultation and publishes it on the VIP website. In this context, the VIP may make parts or entire sections of the dossier publicly available. The information in question could be taken from the summary and the sections about the application domain, how the method works and exposure.  

Yes. Once the VIP has assessed a request and forwarded its advice about it to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, the advice, dossier (excluding annexes) and the comments obtained during the public consultation round are made publicly available via the VIP website. This applies for requests that the VIP has assessed as positive and also those that it has assessed as negative. If a request is withdrawn during the assessment stage, the corresponding dossier is not made publicly available. 

Yes. The rules set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) about the protection of personal data are compulsory for everyone. In the context of the GDPR, it is important for all the personal data in a dossier and the underlying exposure studies to be anonymous in order to safeguard privacy. It is also important for a requester to have obtained consent from every party concerned before the dossier in question is submitted.

The VIP only assesses dossiers if they are complete and have been prepared in line with the requirements of the assessment framework. An assessment is carried out on the basis of the information that a requester includes in the dossier in question. The VIP does not have a mandate to assess measurement plans or to carry out an exposure study or technical study itself in the context of its assessment of a dossier. The concentration of asbestos fibres released by the use of a method in line with the control measures stipulated is assessed on the basis of the limit values in prevailing legislation and regulations. As such, responsibility for the accuracy, completeness and quality of a dossier lies with the requester.

The VIP only assesses dossiers if they are complete and have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the assessment framework. An assessment is carried out on the basis of the information that a requester includes in the dossier in question. The VIP does not have a mandate to assess measurement plans or to carry out an exposure study or technical study itself in the context of its assessment of a dossier. The concentration of asbestos fibres released by the use of a method in line with the control measures stipulated is assessed on the basis of the limit values in prevailing legislation and regulations. As such, responsibility for the accuracy, completeness and quality of the dossier lies with the requester.

The VIP assesses whether a method can be used safely for the applications and in the conditions specified for a particular method. The concentration of asbestos fibres released by the use of a method in line with the control measures stipulated is assessed on the basis of the limit values in prevailing legislation and regulations. 

Yes, you can. See the VIP website for an overview of the requests it is processing. 

Yes, you can register via the contact form. The VIP secretariat will then add you to the send list.