New Asbestos Regulations

7th October 2009

Exposure to asbestos is the largest cause of work related deaths in the UK.

New obligations came into force on 21 May 2004 protecting those who work with
asbestos and creating new duties to "manage" asbestos in all non domestic
properties. "Non-domestic premises" is a wide description and will cover all premises
except those used as houses and individual apartments but will include all common
areas of domestic premises, for example, halls, stairways and access ways etc.

White asbestos was only banned as recently as 1999 and so asbestos could be
present in all buildings constructed or refurbished before then.
The duty imposed is to "manage asbestos" and means the following obligations must
be undertaken:-

1. Reasonable steps must be taken to ascertain the location and condition of any
2. materials which may contain asbestos and the condition of those materials
must be monitored;
3. Materials should be presumed to contain asbestos unless there is strong
evidence to the contrary;
4. Records must be kept showing the location and condition of any materials
containing or suspected to contain asbestos;
5. The risk of anyone being exposed to fibres from these materials must be
assessed and this assessment must be kept up to date;
6. A plan setting out how these risks are to be managed must be prepared and
kept up to date;
7. The risk management plan must be implemented, monitored and reviewed
8. Information on the location and condition of the materials containing or
suspected to contain asbestos must be made available to anyone who might
work on or disturb those materials.

As with all health and safety regulations contravention of the new duties is a criminal
offence, punishable by a fine or even imprisonment.

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