Those people who are responsible for a building and have the power to authorise work upon the fabric of the building, have duties under Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.

Poor quality asbestos insulation in roof void.

To summarise those duties:

• Ensure that the people that work there or visit there are not exposed to asbestos.
• Ensure that workmen who work on the building are informed where the asbestos is to be found.

Although there is a lot of guidance as to how this might be achieved; how it is actually achieved does not matter.

If asbestos is present in the building, its condition obviously has to be monitored. It may have looked alright a year ago, but what state is it in today? Is it exposing people that work near it to airborne asbestos fibre?

This is as basic a health and safety principle as a worn carpet creating a trip hazard or a pile of boxes blocking a fire exit. We all know that there are organisations where the worn carpet and the pile of boxes are ignored and the likelihood of asbestos being managed is nil.

On the other hand, organisations with otherwise good health and safety procedures may have had an asbestos survey but have done nothing with it. They have started on the road to asbestos compliance but have not completed the journey.

The key is the Asbestos Management Plan. Regulation 4 requires that a Management Plan be produced. This is really where the problem starts. It sounds vague and daunting, when in fact the basics of it are very simple:

• What have we got?
• Who is responsible for asbestos in the organisation? (This may involve different people for different departments.)
• Does anything need urgent attention?
• Does anything need less urgent attention? When will it be done?
• How often are we going to check it / have it checked? (Who is going to act upon this?)
• How do we inform workmen doing responsive maintenance?
• How do we approach planned work?

Once this is in place the need for re-inspection is obviously an integral part of the Management Plan, but it is apparent that a great many organisations have had a survey and done no more.

A large part of the problem is the absence of competent people in a great many organisations. The level of competency required varies in accordance with the complexity of the site and the amount and hazardous nature of the asbestos containing materials that are present.

Judging competency is the responsibility of the employer. There is no reason why someone adequately trained and competent on the staff cannot:

• Do the survey.

• Do the re-inspections – which are required at least annually or more frequently for higher risk materials. (Approved Code of Practice L127: The management of asbestos in non-domestic properties.)
• Write the management plan.

If such a person is not available in the organisation, or often does not have the time to do it, then contact a UKAS Accredited Asbestos Inspection Body to:

• Do it for you OR
• Train you to do it OR
• Audit your procedures.

Once it is in place it will run itself…

This post was written by Peter Robinson of Bradley Environmental

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