REPORT PROVIDES INSIGHT IN THE DUTY TO MANAGE

[A REPORT INTO ASBESTOS in UK buildings has been published by the Asbestos Testing and Consultancy Association (ATaC) and National Organisation of Asbestos Consultants (NORAC) after collating and analysing over one million lines of data.

The report was produced in response to a recent inquiry into asbestos management in the UK by the Work and Pensions Committee, which highlighted that little evidence exists about the current extent and condition of asbestos in UK buildings. That information is perhaps the most important indicator of effective asbestos management, a measure of the ‘Duty to Manage’.

Given that a large proportion of asbestos surveys are carried out using electronic data collection and report generation, the collation of data would be possible. So ATaC and NORAC formed their first collaborative project. As ATaC and NORAC represent the asbestos surveying sector, they decided to combine efforts to provide a factual based review of the Duty to Manage.

The report analyses anonymised data provided freely by 20 UKAS accredited organisations. That was over one million lines of data derived from over 128,000 asbestos surveys of premises across the country: making that data set statistically significant on the condition of asbestos in UK buildings.

Key findings

Of the 1,016,783 items reported, 79% either contained asbestos or were presumed to contain asbestos. The data was from 128,761 sites, of which 78% contained asbestos. Of those sites, 94,116 were domestic properties, of which 85% were found to contain asbestos, and 63% of sites visited contained damaged asbestos.

The initial report focused on the extent of damaged materials within the UK property portfolio. Given that the underlying premise of the Duty to Manage requirements is to maintain asbestos in a good condition, the quantity of damaged asbestos containing materials does not make good reading.

Also, nearly 78% of the asbestos items identified in the survey data, if removed or worked upon, would represent unlicensed work. If the data is representative of the proportion of unlicensed work versus licensed work in general, then there is a large proportion of work with asbestos that, while regulated, is largely unenforced by regulators.

The ATaC and NORAC report highlights some concerning asbestos management failings in the UK. The causes of ineffective management can be complex; however, the report shows that, even after 20 years of the Duty to Manage regulation, there are major issues in the management of asbestos in the UK.

The data also illustrates the extent of the asbestos problem within social housing – an area largely ignored by regulations to date, yet an area that does need to be examined with some urgency.

According to ATaC: “Good asbestos management is about protecting the health and safety of employees, workers and the general public. What the data indicates is that the UK is not yet at this stage. The legacy of asbestos-related disease deaths, currently at 5,000 a year, has the potential to continue for many generations to come.

“The publication of this report has shown the value of collaborative working. ATaC has played a leading role in this initiative and going forward will be asking all ATaC members, and the industry at large, to work together to provide more information on the state of asbestos management in UK buildings.” q