Asbestos survey checker

Management survey or refurbishment & demolition survey?

Asbestos is the single biggest cause of work-related death in the UK, and most of those exposed never meant to disturb it. The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR 2012) and HSE’s survey guide HSG264 set out two survey types, and getting the right one is the difference between managing a known risk and cutting blind into it.

• Management survey — for a building in normal occupation and use. It locates asbestos-containing materials that could be disturbed during ordinary occupation or routine maintenance, and records their type and condition so they can be managed in place. It is the basis of the asbestos register and the management plan.
• Refurbishment & demolition (R&D) survey — required before any refurbishment, alteration, strip-out or demolition. It is far more intrusive: the surveyor opens up voids, ceilings, ducts and structure to find asbestos that the work will disturb. It must be done before the work starts — there is no exception for a “quick job”, and a management survey or an existing register does not cover refurbishment or demolition work.

The duty to manage (CAR 2012, regulation 4)

In non-domestic premises — and the common parts of domestic blocks such as stairwells, landings and plant rooms — someone holds a legal duty to manage asbestos. That dutyholder is whoever has the obligation to maintain or repair the premises, or, where there is no such agreement, whoever controls them. The duty is to find out whether asbestos is or might be present, assess and record its location and condition, prepare and keep a written management plan, and tell everyone liable to disturb it — including the emergency services. Inside a single private dwelling the duty to manage doesn’t apply, but anyone doing work that could expose people to asbestos still has to assess the risk first.

The pre-2000 rule

The UK ban on importing, supplying and using asbestos took full effect at the end of 1999. As a practical guide, a building constructed and last refurbished wholly after 2000 is very unlikely to contain asbestos in its fabric. But that “after 2000” date has to be genuinely certain for the whole structure — older surviving elements, re-used or salvaged materials, imported products and older plant can all still contain asbestos. If you can’t be sure of the age, CAR 2012 regulation 5 is explicit: assume asbestos is present and work to that.

Who arranges it, and when

On refurbishment and demolition the client must commission the R&D survey from a competent surveyor and hand it to the contractor before work begins — it forms part of the pre-construction information, not something the principal contractor sorts out after mobilising. Use a UKAS-accredited surveyor (or one whose competence you can demonstrate), and after any removal, the air testing and site clearance must be done by an analyst accredited to ISO 17025 / ISO 17020.

What to do with the findings — and the emergency rule

Survey findings go into the register and management plan; everyone who could disturb the material is briefed; licensed removal goes to an HSE-licensed contractor, and every job needs a written plan of work. And the rule that saves lives on site: if you find or even suspect asbestos mid-job, stop, isolate the area and get it tested before going back. Don’t carry on, don’t clean it up, don’t bin it.

Sources: HSE — Asbestos: The survey guide, HSG264 (hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg264.htm); the duty to manage asbestos (hse.gov.uk/asbestos/duty.htm); and the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/632).