Hampshire County Council

Buildings, Land and Contracts Panel Item

24 October 2003

New Legislation for Managing Asbestos in Non-Domestic Premises

Report by the Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services

1

Introduction

1.1

A change in the National legal framework for managing asbestos has been introduced as the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002. These new Regulations require the owner and persons in charge of the premises to manage the risk from asbestos materials. To comply with the Regulations the Council is required to prepare a plan that sets out the detail of how it is going to manage the risk from asbestos material within its premises.

1.2

The County Council already has a management plan in place for managing asbestos within its premises. However the new legislation will bring a number of new impacts to bear on the Council including:

· a new legal duty on owners and those in charge of premises to manage asbestos.

· more in-depth surveys of premises to determine the presence of asbestos or the acceptance of a presumption that all materials within premises contain asbestos unless there is strong evidence they do not.

· more stringent requirements for the monitoring and reinspection of asbestos left in place.

· making asbestos information available to the emergency services, particularly the Fire and Rescue Service.

2

The New Regulations and Approved Code of Practice and Guidance

2.1

The new Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations come into force on 21 May 2004. They are supported by an "Approved Code of Practice and Guidance" which the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have published in advance of the Regulations coming into force in order to give those who

have duties under the Regulations the opportunity to know what they are required to do and can start to take action to manage the risk from asbestos

in their premises. Appendix 1 gives an overview of the Council's existing management plan and the additional areas of work needed to comply with the new Regulations.

3

Additional Management Action

3.1

It can be seen from Appendix 1 that the Landlord has robust management arrangements already in place to achieve compliance with the new Regulations. The principal areas of additional management now required include: (1) Improved survey information, (2) The involvement of local managers in the regular checking of asbestos materials in premises, (3) Agree with the Emergency Services the best way of giving them access to the Council's asbestos database.

3.2

Asbestos Surveys: The County Council's premises were originally surveyed for asbestos materials some six years ago in 1997/98, based on a "walk through" visual appraisal of the buildings. It is proposed to augment these surveys by making more detailed inspections to examine ceiling and roof voids and sample material as a minimum in order to bring existing data up to the standard of Type 2 surveys. See Appendix 2 for details of survey types.

3.3

Local manager Checks of Asbestos Materials: HSE's new Approved Code of Practice requires asbestos within premises, as a minimum, be checked every six to twelve months even if it is in good condition. The additional checks could be implemented either by independent contractors or by local managers as part of their normal duties to manage premises. A report to members of CMT will recommend that local managers make regular checks of asbestos materials at six to twelve month intervals. Local managers will need to be trained to undertake the necessary checking. Appendix 3 sets out the split in responsibilities between the Landlord and departments and their local managers.

3.4

Emergency Services: Currently the Emergency Services will only have access to the Council's asbestos database via the paper based asbestos register at individual sites. There may be situations when this will not meet the requirements of the new Regulations and it is proposed therefore to explore ways of providing the information by electronic means utilising the Council's IT2000 infrastructure.

4

Resources Implications Associated with the New Regulations

4.1

Members will recall allocating an additional funding in May for improvements in health and safety management. Around £350,000 has been set aside from this sum to commence updating the asbestos survey information over the next eighteen months. Surveyors will need to be trained to become competent in this area of work and there will be a

premium to be paid to find competent surveyors, given the demand nationally, to meet the requirements of the new legislation. It is likely that

consultants with specialist knowledge of asbestos identification will be used for this task, as opposed to recruiting in-house surveying staff.

4.2

Departments will need to evaluate the cost of local managers undertaking checks of asbestos materials, but if combined with other local premises management tasks, costs should be kept to a minimum.

5

Conclusion

5.1

The new Asbestos at Work Regulations will set a national framework on how building owners and those in charge of premises will have to operate in future. Whilst the County Council is well placed to meet its obligations under the Regulations, some additional management action is required to action full compliance, including:

· gathering additional survey information.

· greater involvement by local managers in the management of asbestos within premises.

· sharing the County Council's asbestos database with the emergency services.

5.2

The cost of meeting these regulations will be a new and ongoing cost to the County Council.

Recommendation(s)

That the Buildings, Land and Contracts Panel advise the Executive Member for Policy and Resources that:

1

approval be given to a first phase of additional and more detailed asbestos surveys being carried out as a charge against the CRA contingency fund.

2

the sharing of the County Council's asbestos database with the emergency services be approved.