Asbestos Management Surveys

The objective of an Asbestos Management Survey is to identify, as far as reasonably practicable, the presence of any asbestos containing materials and provide an assessment of their condition to determine if there is any risk of asbestos exposure to your employees, visitors, and members of the public during normal occupational and maintenance activities within the premises.​

 

If there is a actual or reasonably foreseeable risk of asbestos exposure then then is a duty to intercede with a remedial action.

 

The Asbestos Management Survey is one part of a two part compliance solution and needs to be accompanied by a Asbestos Management Plan.

 

We have highlighted some of the common problems associated with Asbestos Management Plans and these are especially reviewed in the Asbestos Compliance Audit process

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Recommendations not acted upon

If there is asbestos within the property or properties that that you have responsibility for, the remedial actions that are provided in the Asbestos Management Survey need to reviewed and then discharged. 

 

The mechanism for reviewing and acting upon the recommendations within the Asbestos Management Survey should be identified in the Asbestos Management Plan 

 

If the same remedial action is identified over a number of surveys or re-inspections, which is not uncommon, then there is a danger that that a non-reviewed or acted upon Asbestos Management Survey could be cited evidence by the enforcing authorities for non-compliance.

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Recommendations may not be appropriate or not reasonably practicable

Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations is a duty to manage and not necessarily a duty to remove. 

 

The recommendations contained within the Asbestos Management Plan should be reviewed to see if there are any alternative cost effective and equally compliant alternatives other than asbestos removal.

 

This is something that will be reviewed as part of the Asbestos Compliance Audit

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Non Accessed Areas

In most cases an asbestos management surveys will also contain a list of areas or elements which are not surveyed.  

 

Typically, these included:

• Lift Shafts

• Locked Rooms

• Above 3m

 

The default position is that any non-accessed area should be presumed to contain asbestos. Although this is a potentially compliance approach, it can have a debilitating effect on the day-to-day maintenance and management of the property.  

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Accuracy of the data

There is a requirement of the information on the condition of asbestos containing materials to be checked on a frequency identified in the Asbestos Management Plan. 

 

Following the production of the Asbestos Management Survey then condition of the identified asbestos will need to be checked though an Asbestos Re-inspection process 

 

If removal or repair work has taken place the asbestos register will need to be updated 

 

Arrangements should be made to access all inaccessible areas for them to be included in the asbestos management survey. 

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If you have any concerns regarding your Asbestos Management Surveys, please contact via our Contact Page

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