The requirement for asbestos management plans for non-domestic premises has been in place for a number of years, yet firms continue to ignore this important legal requirement. How common is this?
Two companies have recently been prosecuted after workers were exposed to potentially deadly asbestos fibres at a mill in Bolton.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) took legal action against a letting agent and the mill owner, after finding dozens of damaged asbestos boards stacked up at the premises during a visit on 20 October 2010.
Manchester Crown Court heard that neither company had put a plan in place to manage the asbestos in the mill, where several small businesses rent units.
The court was told that the letting agent had raised the issue of the lack of an asbestos assessment in 2006, but did not take any further action. The owner of the mill also failed to arrange for an asbestos survey to be carried out.
Both companies pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 for failing to ensure the health and safety of people at the mill. The mill owners also admitted a breach of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 by failing to properly assess the risks from asbestos at the site.
They were fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £8,969 in prosecution costs. The letting agent was fined £15,000 and with costs of £11,011.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Philip Strickland said:
“Workers at the mill have been exposed to potentially deadly fibres because neither company did anything to find out where asbestos was on the site.
“It is a legal requirement for owners and letting agents of commercial properties to carry out an assessment as to whether asbestos is present in a building, and what action is needed to keep it safe.
“If employers don’t take the risks from asbestos seriously, then thousands of people will continue to die in the UK every year as a result of breathing in asbestos fibres.”
Around 4,000 people die every year as a result of breathing in asbestos fibres, making it the biggest single cause of work-related deaths in the UK.
When lives can be shattered, reputations torn to shreds, and bank balances hit by huge fines, why is it that many businesses have yet to get a grip on this issue?
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