www.coventry.gov.uk

Asbestos

Guidance

Contents

Page

Introduction 3

Duty to Manage 4

Where Duty Applies 4

Building Occupation Changes 4

Duty to Co-operate 5

Duty Holders 5

Delegating Tasks 5

Managing Asbestos Risk 6

Managing Remaining Asbestos 6

Emergency Procedures 7

Training and Instruction 7

Communicating the Management Plan 7

Reviewing the Management Plan 8

Contacts 8

2

Introduction

This Guidance has been produced in accordance with Coventry City Council’s (CCC) Health and Safety Policy to ensure that all health and safety issues relating to asbestos are adequately managed and controlled and thereby minimise the risk to persons of the exposure to asbestos.The Control of Asbestos Regulations (CAR) 2012 place legal duties on employers; with Regulation 4 placing a specific duty to manage asbestos on the duty holder and/or those responsible for repair and maintenance in non-domestic premises.

The Guidance takes you through the process of understanding the main duties relating to the management of asbestos risk in non-domestic buildings in accordance with current legislation. The procedures to comply with this Guidance are detailed in the Local Asbestos Management Plan procedural (LAMP) documentation, both available on The Beacon and The Portal.

In particular the Guidance explains:■ What the duty to manage asbestos risk means in practice■ Where the duty to manage applies and who the duty holders are■ The effects of changes in tenancy or occupation of a building■ The duty to cooperate with each other■ Delegating certain asbestos management tasks■ What the duty holder responsibilities are■ Managing asbestos in buildings where it is left in place■ Reviewing, updating and communicating the asbestos management plan.

CCC, as the principal duty holder, will ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to find and assess known and suspect asbestos containing materials (ACMs) in all properties where it has duty holder responsibilities. A management survey will be conducted in all Corporate Operational properties which will be available on The Asbestos Portal as both an electronic report and complete property asbestos register. All high risk materials requiring remediation will be dealt with by CCC. A LAMP for each premise will also be produced which contains the asbestos register and associated room plan(s) along with the following procedures:

■ Unplanned fibre release/emergency procedures■ Risk assessment prior to planned building works■ Ensuring contractors have viewed and acknowledged the asbestos register■ All employees are aware of the location of ACMs and the management procedures.

All asbestos information will be available and maintained on the central database, The Asbestos Portal. Each LAMPwill be sent to the relevant Premise/Service Managerwho will act as the localduty holder and ensurethe LAMP is implemented.

3Asbestos register example

Where Duty Applies

The duty to manage covers all non-domestic premises, constructed prior to the year 2000. This includes all industrial and commercial buildings, such as factories, warehouses, offices and shops. The duty also covers public buildings such as, schools, museums, libraries, leisure centres, churches and other religious buildings. In addition are structures and installations (such as bridges), street furniture (such as street lighting) etc.

The duty also applies to the ‘common parts’ of multi–occupancy retail, commercial or industrial premises. The common parts of such premises might include foyers, corridors, lifts/ lift shafts, staircases, roof spaces, gardens, yards, out-houses and garages but not the let office/unit area inside each property where the duty holder under a tenancy agreement is the tenant.

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Building Occupation Changes

If a building is vacated resulting in a change of tenancy or becoming void, CCC must immediately make sure all relevant information is created/reviewed, updated accordingly and passed on to any new occupier.

Duty to Manage

The duty to manage asbestos requires duty holders to identify and record the location and condition of asbestos, and suspected asbestos, in non-domestic premises so far as reasonably practicable and to manage the potential risk to anyone who works on the building and to building occupants.

CCC will appoint accredited third party specialist consultants to undertake management surveys within all corporate operational properties and record the information, including the asbestos register, on The Asbestos Portal. CCC will then undertake a priority risk assessment of all ACMs and implement a planned work programme to either remove, remediate or ensure ongoing annual inspection and provide written LAMP procedures.

No asbestos surveys will be required on properties constructed from the year 2000 onwards.The LAMP will include the asbestos register and annotated building plans, emergency procedures, communicating the plan and planned building work procedures. It is the responsibility of local duty holders to action the management plan, to communicate the plan to all relevant employees and to ensure ongoing compliance on their premise(s).

CCC will conduct annual audits to ensure the LAMP procedures are being actioned and that all employees are aware of their roles and responsibilities.

Relevant asbestos training will be made available to all relevant CCC employees either via classroom based training or e-learning on The Beacon or via The Asbestos Portal.

Historic asbestos data collated prior to the formation of The Asbestos Portal will be available on the CCC central database.

Duty to Co-operate

Where CCC has shared responsibility with others, all parties should make relevant building areas they are responsible for available to one another to assist the duty holder to comply. Generally costs of duty holder actions to manage these risks will be the CCC’s responsibility, with the exception of properties with devolved budgets; such as LEA schools and truct properties.

Where there is shared responsibility, CCC will co-operate with local duty holders by providing any information it may hold on its buildings regarding the presence of asbestos.

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Delegating Tasks

The CCC’s legal responsibilities as statutory duty holder cannot be delegated; however CCC may appoint competent individuals and/or organisations to assist in complying with its duties such as undertaking management surveys, providing the asbestos data for the register and management plans, undertaking asbestos remediation works and ensuring on-going satisfactory management.

The appointed individual or organisation must be competent to do this work. Analytical or surveying organisations must be accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and asbestos removal contractors must be licensed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Safety representatives must be consulted about the arrangements to appoint a competent person or organisation.

Duty Holders

The Chief Executive has overall responsibility throughout CCC for implementing and achieving the objectives of the Health and Safety Policy Statement and to this effect is the person with whom ultimately the duty is placed with regards to the control and management of asbestos. However, The Chief Executive delegates responsibilities to Place Directorate, Property Asset Management Team, who are provided with the resources to ensure the correct management of asbestos within the CCC’s operational properties.

The Local Duty Holders are as follows:

Property type Who is the Local Duty Holder?

Corporate operational properties Site, premise or operation manager

Operational properties with devolved budgets, e.g., LEA schools/trust properties/arm’s length organisations

Head Teacher and the School Governors/Trust Managers

Commercial, industrial or retail properties (which gives all repair responsibility to the tenant)

Tenant occupier

Void properties (commercial) Commercial Property

Commercial communal areas Occupier Support

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Managing Remaining Asbestos

ACMs which are in good condition and unlikely to be easily disturbed can be left in place and managed and inspected annually.

The following management procedures are contained in more detail in the LAMP document.

The asbestos register on The Portal will contain all information regarding the identification and location of ACMs, any areas not accessed during the management survey and all non-asbestos room components. This will be accompanied with a detailed building plan and photographs to aid identification and will be regularly updated.

The location of all ACMs and the management plan procedures must be communicated to all relevant person(s) who may disturb the building fabric, such as contractors, maintenance staff and occupants via the asbestos site register AND room plans in the LAMP or on The Asbestos Portal. The duty holder must undertake a suitable risk assessment prior to any building or maintenance works to ensure the location of ACMs are known and will not be disturbed. If there is insufficient asbestos information from the asbestos register then a more intrusive survey is required prior to work commencing: a Refurbishment/Demolition Survey.

All works on or involving ACMs must be carried out by a suitably trained and competent contractor, an approved licensed removal contractor for all licensed asbestos work and at least a contractor with Category B training for all other work with asbestos.

The local duty holder must communicate the presence of asbestos to all who may be affected such as staff, maintenance engineers, visitors, project contractors and any others likely to come in contact with the asbestos.

Managing Asbestos Risk

CCC provides and maintains the online asbestos register and associated LAMP procedures for all corporate operational properties, but also for commercial properties and LEA schools where requested by the local duty holder; on The Portal. The priority risk assessment will ensure removal and/or remediation of higher risk ACMs followed by a continual programme of annual inspection to ensure the good condition of in-situ ACMs.

Not all LEA schools and commercial properties may employ the use of The Asbestos Portal and may continue to use existing LAMPs, management survey reports and any other relevant information, CCC will continue to conduct regular audits to ensure that the procedures in place are satisfactorily implemented.

Local duty holders responsible for individual properties have the responsibility for ensuring asbestos compliance with current legislation, this guidance and the LAMP procedures. The LAMP procedures must be actioned and communicated to all relevant employees and contractors.

CCC will review individual LAMPs annually or as required (change of circumstances) in consultation local duty holders. However, whilst annual inspections are conducted, the local duty holder must report any changes in ACM condition to CCC and must employ emergency procedures in the event of unplanned disturbance.

Emergency Procedures

Emergency procedures must be made available to all employees and regular building users and are available in the LAMP procedures document.

If any known or suspect ACM is disturbed or damaged then the local duty holder, or their deputy; must ensure that all access to the area is immediately restricted and secured. An investigation as outlined in the procedures is followed to determine the presence of asbestos fibres, if any and remediation procedure implemented.

Following any emergency incident, the incident form in the LAMP must be completed and sent to Statutory Compliance Team. In some circumstances the incident may need to be reported to the HSE as per the Reporting of Deaths and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 2013.

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Training and Instruction

Category A asbestos awareness training is mandatory for all CCC maintenance employees, including all LEA schools. All contractors that may disturb the building fabric, even if not working on or near ACMs, must have asbestos awareness training (Category A) as a minimum requirement.

Any employee or contractor undertaking work on, or which may disturb, non-licensed ACMs must have Category B training as a minimum. Work on any other ACMs must be conducted by an HSE approved licensed asbestos removal contractor.

On line training is available for how to use The Asbestos Portal, local duty holder responsibilities and basic asbestos awareness training on both The Beacon and The Portal. Refresher training is also available and can be provided when requested.

All training certificates must be recorded and made available when required.

Communicating the Management Plan

Duty holders will ensure current LAMP procedures are available to all the individual corporate operational premises. If there are separate local duty holders responsible for different premises on the same site, they must each make the information available to those in their respective premises.

Local duty holders must:■ Tell relevant employees what the management plan arrangements are;■ Provide maintenance staff and external contractors with information on the location and condition of any known asbestos;■ Ensure relevant employees attend asbestos training;■ Nominate a named deputy to act as local duty holder in their absence;■ Provide copies of the management plan for employee representatives and trade union safety representatives.

Contacts

For further information contact:

For any further information on this asbestos management guidance please contact, Statutory Compliance, Coventry City Council on 024 7683 2690 or e-mail compliance@coventry.gov.uk

Occupational Safety, Health and Wellbeing: 024 7683 3285

Emergency Service Unit (Out of Hours): 024 7683 3028

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If you need this information in another languageor format please contact Asbestos Managementon 024 7683 2690

Reviewing the Management Plan

As a minimum, the LAMP procedures, the asbestos register and room plan(s) must be reviewed and updated accordingly every 12 months, or sooner if circumstances have changed (such as a change of use of building, work being undertaken or asbestos removed). This will include the re-inspection of ACMs to check their condition.

The effectiveness of the implementation of the current LAMP procedures will be reviewed annually by CCC.

Periodic checks will be undertaken by the local duty holder to ensure all arrangements and procedures for managing asbestos are working and that people are fully aware of what they should be doing to comply with the duty to manage.

The review will be recorded.

Where there is shared responsibility, CCC will co-operate with local duty holders by providing any information it may hold on its buildings regarding the presence of asbestos.

Access to the asbestos register for all Corporate Operational properties will be provided to the emergency services via The Asbestos Portal. For properties not utilising The Asbestos Portal, the local duty holder will be required to provide this access to the emergency services from their on-site LAMP.