Managing Asbestos: Still Room for Improvement

2nd May 2017

The S2 Partnership recently highlighted Asbestos Awareness Week, which took place 1st – 7th April.  With increased awareness comes the realisation that there is still much work to be done to improve arrangements for managing asbestos.

This is still certainly the case across most sectors, not least education.  In fact, with regard to schools, figures in the Department for Education’s/Education Funding Agency’s recent publication Asbestos Management in Schools Data Collection Report, showed that 19% (1,060) of schools responding to the data collection were not compliant with regulations.  This was a voluntary survey, with only 25% of schools responding, and it could be assumed that the schools who knew they were not compliant would have been less likely to respond, potentially distorting the true extent of non-compliance.

The Education sector is certainly not unique in this respect and this acts as a timely reminder that although, over recent years, much work has been done by stakeholders across all industry sectors to raise awareness of the duty to manage asbestos, significant ongoing work is still required.

All non-domestic properties have a duty to manage the risk of asbestos within their premises so that they comply with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR 2012) –  key management considerations include:

  • Have an asbestos management plan drawn up by a competent surveyor, identifying any asbestos containing materials (ACMs) and measures that must be implemented in order to control the risk associated with them
  • Carry out any management actions to control the risk of asbestos in properties
  • Communicate the management plan to relevant stakeholders, ensuring they are aware of the scope of any surveys carried out, particularly if they are having to carry out any construction or demolition work

Should you require clarification on asbestos management within your properties, our dedicated team of asbestos consultants assist our clients daily with asbestos management plans, processes, surveys and advice. In addition, the RiskWise Asbestos Register provides the easiest solution for managing asbestos information online – providing full visibility of information to contractors and other stakeholders. For further guidance or information, please contact our experienced team.