The Law states that:

‘Employers must not carry out any refurbishment, maintenance or demolition work or carry out any other work which may expose employees to asbestos unless they have established whether asbestos is, or may be, present within the building. They must also identify the type of asbestos, the amount of asbestos and its condition’. Employers and building owners must undertake a suitable and sufficient survey to satisfy this requirement. There are two types of survey available:

1. The Management Survey - This should be used to identify all ACMs that could be disturbed during everyday use of the building, this should include all forseeable maintenance activities.

2. The Refurbishment & Demolition Survey - A comprehensive, full access survey which should identify all ACMs within the building. The survey should be undertaken before any refurbishment is made to the building.

Information, instruct and train....

The Regulations state that the employer must ensure that they give suitable training to employees, supervisors and managers. The following regulations are all applicable 4, 5, 6 & 10.

Prevent, reduce and protect....

Your employer must take all reasonable steps to reduce exposure to asbestos if you work with it and provide suitable PPE and RPE to prevent the inhalation and spread of the fibres.

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Health and Safety at work act 1974

Employers have always had a long established legal duty of care to prevent the exposure of their employees, sub-contractors and members of the public to all hazards (which of course include asbestos) under various sections and regulations within the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and The Management of Health at Work Regulations. These both require risk assessments to be carried out on all work activities.

The duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises

The person or persons, by contract, ownership or control of a non-domestic building have a duty to manage any asbestos which it contains. This 'duty holder' must take reasonable steps to discover if asbestos is present in the premises, how much there is, and what condition it is in.

Building owners should assume asbestos is present until a full asbestos survey is carried out. The results of any asbestos survey should be recorded and the information provided in the form of the asbestos ‘register’. It is your employer’s legal right to request this document as it will contain the essential information of where asbestos could be or is present within the work area.

 

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Risk assessment

All employers have a legal duty to protect employees whilst at work. To assist them to comply with this requirement they MUST carry out risk assessments of all work activities. Where any activities involving work in buildings that may contain asbestos, a suitable and sufficient risk assessment to identify the dangers MUST be undertaken. Employers MUST ensure that employees have access to these risk assessments, to avoid exposure to asbestos.

Landlords

Landlords have legal duties, both to tenants and anyone who works on their property, to pass on information relating to all hazards which could cause harm to health. This must include asbestos.
 

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Which occupational groups in the UK are most at risk from exposure to asbestos?

A: Hairdressers and shop assistants B: Office workers and bank staff C: Building and maintenance contractors D: Coal Miners

Which one of the following statements is true?

A: Asbestos is only found in buildings constructed before 1975 B: Asbestos was NOT used after 1985 C: Asbestos can be found in any building built before 2000 D: Asbestos was not used after 1965

Who is responsible for preventing you from being exposed to asbestos?

A: Your trade union B: Your employer C: The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) D: The council

When you are working in a non-domestic building, the 'duty holder' has a legal requirement to provide you or your employer with an asbestos register. What does this document contain?
 

A: A full description of the asbestos that has been removed from the building B: A full description of the types of materials that do not contain asbestos C: A full description of where any identified and presumed asbestos is within the building D: A full description of where presumed asbestos is present within the building