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Archive for the ‘Asbestos Legislation’ Category
In a judgement that could have far-reaching ramifications for UK companies with subsidiaries, the Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of an asbestosis sufferer, who sought damages against the parent company of his former employer.
The Court upheld a decision by the High Court in April last year, which ruled that Cape plc, as the parent company, was liable for the activities of its subsidiary, Cape Building Products Ltd. The appeal judgment, handed down last week (25 April), could have significant consequences for companies in the UK with domestic-based subsidiaries, as well as multi-national companies headquartered in the UK with subsidiaries in developing countries, where their operations have greater potential to cause direct harm to workers, the local environment, and consumers.
The case centered around David Chandler, 71, who was employed by Cape Building Products Limited (formerly Uxbridge Flint Brick Company), between 1959 and 1961, during which period he suffered heavy asbestos exposure. Diagnosed with asbestosis in 2007, he was unable to pursue a claim against Cape Building Products, owing to an ‘asbestosis exclusion clause’ in its insurance policy. Mr Chandler’s lawyers, Leigh Day & Co, instead decided to pursue his claim against Cape plc.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Stuart Pearson at Guildford Magistrates’ Court for breaching the Control of Asbestos Regulations between the 20th of April and 1st of May 2011.
On the 30th of April 2012 the court was told that he had been employed to carry out the demolition of a house in Woking, Surrey, before groundwork’s were laid for a new property.
The previous homeowner had an asbestos survey carried out after a plumber refused to repair the boiler due to the presence of asbestos; this survey was given to Pearson to make him aware of the area which contained asbestos.
The survey highlighted that there were 12 metres of asbestos in poor condition within the house, with two of three areas classified as ‘high risk’. It went on to state: ‘This material is in very poor condition and debris now exists around the boiler and the floor within the rest of the room. This room must not be accessed until a full environmental clean and removal of all asbestos-containing materials has been carried out by a licensed asbestos contractor.’
The report also stated that the asbestos removal had to be undertaken in controlled conditions with the use of ‘enclosures, airlocks, negative pressure units and decontamination units’.
History of Asbestos in the UK
Earlier this year Silverdell PLC took the lead as the first company, (who major on the management of asbestos and other hazardous materials) to publish an historic timeline on the subject of asbestos, in a visual and easily shareable format.
They have adapted the timeline and accompanying article to reflect the recent supreme court landmark ruling and the changes to the (CAR) 2012 regulations.
The content, in the form of an infographic and detailed article, aims to highlight the ‘History of Asbestos’, the use of asbestos and asbestos legislation, since the first recorded asbestos-related death in 1906.
Redhills is one of the UK’s leading asbestos and environmental consultancies.
We have produced this document to answer the following asbestos related questions.
- What is the health risk from exposure to asbestos?
- What is the Control of Asbestos Regulations?
- What is the ‘duty to manage’ and who has it?
- What kinds of building are affected by asbestos regulations?
- How do I become asbestos compliant?
- What is an asbestos management survey and do I need one?
- What is an asbestos register?
- We are planning to refurbish or demolish some buildings do I need a survey?
- What are my responsibilities in relation to asbestos training?
- What should I do if someone has disturbed and damaged asbestos?
- Where is asbestos found in buildings?
For answers to all these questions, download the document here.
New asbestos legislation will undoubtedly lead to extra costs for many employers in the electrical contracting industry, says Paul Reeve, head of Health & Safety and Environment at the ECA.
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at the start of April, place more intensive requirements on maintenance contractors.
Under the new regulations, contractors must notify the relevant authorities if they are doing certain types of non-licensed work involving asbestos, and keep a brief written log of the work.
In addition, all employees who could come into contact with asbestos will need to be put under health surveillance. The tighter regulations are a response to the European Commission’s view that the UK had not fully implemented EU Directive 2009/148/EC on controlling worker’s exposure to asbestos.
Reeve said, “The HSE has put considerable thought into limiting the financial impact of the changes, but the new regulations will still require thousands of maintenance contractors to provide three-yearly respiratory health assessments for tens of thousands of their operatives. This could lead to a significant increase in costs.”
Silverdell PLC, the Specialist Environmental Support Services group, today welcomed the Health and Safety Executive’s changes to the Control of Asbestos Regulations, saying this could affect up to 730,000 workers in the UK.
Changes to the Control of Asbestos Regulations come into force today (6 April 2012) following amendments to bring the UK legislation in to line with the minimum standards of the EU Asbestos Worker Protection Directive.
The biggest change affects the current “Non-Licensable” work on asbestos. This category represents the vast majority of all work carried out on asbestos within the UK, affecting some 1.8m workers annually. The “Licensed” category of work on asbestos – affecting some 9,000 workers – is not intended to be affected.
The “Non-Licensable” category will be split into two and an additional category will be created which will be termed “Notifiable Non-Licensable Work” (NNLW). This will sit between the current “Non-Licensable” and “Licensable” categories. Works that fall into this category must be: notified, each worker exposed must have medical surveillance every three years and the employer must maintain a register for each worker of the type and duration of work done with asbestos – to be kept for 40 years along with copies of all medicals.
Asbestos Awareness
A laboratory testing firm has been prosecuted after putting workers at its Tyneside premises at risk of exposure to asbestos.
An investigation was started into the activities of Exova (UK) Limited after a complaint about the company was submitted. The complaint suggested that the company had not dealt with damaged asbestos at its site at The Grubb Parsons Building on Shields Road, Newcastle.
The company had been advised to follow asbestos regulations and had failed to do so after the second recommendation.
The company’s own accredited asbestos testing branch carried out a survey of the premises on the 3rd of October Newcastle Magistrates’ Court Heard. The branch identified damaged asbestos in two separate areas of the site and the survey stated that the asbestos should be removed, repaired or sealed.
In February 2010 a further survey was completed, this survey also stated that the previously identified damaged asbestos was still there.
Andrew Woodhall, and HSE inspector, visited the site on 15 July 2010, he found the recommendations of the two earlier surveys had still not been implemented and employees were continuing to access and work in the area.
Due to employees working in the area where asbestos was present and exposure was likely, the HSE inspector instigated enforcement action.
The UK Supreme Court today made a ruling which could allow thousands of insurance claims by relatives of people who have died following exposure to asbestos. Silverdell PLC the Specialist Environmental Support Services group has put out the following statement in response to this historic ruling:
Sean Nutley, Chief Executive Officer of Silverdell PLC.
“This is a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court. Currently, around 4,700 people in the UK die from asbestos related disease and that number is expected to rise to more than 5,000 per year and the route to fair compensation in the past has been notoriously slow and difficult to follow. This judgement removes the obstacle that the insurance companies sought to include which tried to define the insurance as only being valid on the date of diagnosis of the disease, not the date the exposure occurred.
However, it does emphasise the importance of effective and compliant asbestos management in the workplace: without this, organisations will, in the future, find a compensation defence harder to mount. Accordingly, we urge employers and managers to take this opportunity to review their existing management plans and ensure that current measures are appropriate. In this way, the end result of this very tragic case will be safer work environments and improved public health.”
The HSE is seeking views on revising the Control of Asbestos Regulations to bring them into line with the parent European Directive.
The consultation follows the European Commission’s reasoned opinion earlier this year that the UK had under-implemented Article 3(3) of the Directive 2003/18/EC. The Article provides for the exemption of some types of lower-risk work with asbestos from three requirements of the Directive: notification of work; medical examinations; and record-keeping.
However, the EC decided that the omission in the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 of the terms ‘non-friable’ and ‘without deterioration of non-degraded material’ broadened the scope of the exemption, allowing more types of asbestos work to be exempt from the three requirements than was intended.
The HSE had taken the decision to omit the terms because it felt the lack of definition surrounding the terms might confuse duty-holders and make enforcement difficult. Instead, the Regulations introduced a short-term peak exposure limit of airborne fibre, which cannot be exceeded if the exemptions are to apply.
The nine-week consultation on revising the 2006 Regulations, which proposes revoking them entirely and issuing a single set of revised regulations, confirms the Government’s acceptance of the reasoned opinion and that UK legislation must be changed to include the two omitted terms.
By complying fully with the reasoned opinion, the UK will ensure that the revised regulations will narrow the types of work to which the exemptions apply. Consequently, employers carrying out some type of low-risk, short-duration maintenance and repair work on asbestos-containing materials will be newly required to:
• notify the work to the relevant enforcing authority;
• obtain medical examinations for workers; and
• maintain a register for each worker of the type and duration of work done with asbestos.
To comply with the reasoned opinion, but to avoid extending the requirement to hold a licence to carry out short-term, low-risk work, the exemption for licensing will be delinked from the other exemptions and a separate definition of the work for which a licence is required will be set.
This means that, in future, three categories of work will exist as opposed to two:
- licensed, to which all requirements apply;
- non-licensed, which is exempt, as now, from the requirements to notify, carry out medical examinations, and keep medical registers; and
- a new category called notifiable non-licensed work (NNLW) – for which the three requirements will apply.
Workers in building trades in the Humber region are being given the chance to learn how to recognise and deal with one of their industry’s biggest killers – asbestos.
A series of training courses is being offered by the South Yorkshire & Humber Working Well Together Group – a partnership between key players in the construction sector and allied trades, plus the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Courses are aimed mainly at small and medium businesses and welcome everyone from joiners and painters to plumbers and general builders.
British asbestos campaigners have today launched a national survey exploring general awareness and understanding of asbestos in buildings and the regulations designed to protect UK workers from being exposed to asbestos in their workplace.
The survey can be taken here:
The Great British Asbestos in Buildings Survey 2011
The survey has been developed in conjunction with the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) the organisation that currently accredits over 100 asbestos inspection bodies to carry out asbestos surveys. Known as the Great British Asbestos in Buildings Survey 2011, the survey will be promoted across all industries via the UK’s leading trade associations and trade unions, membership organisations and industry institutions. Tradesmen, building occupiers, dutyholders, clients, FM’s, property managers of non-domestic buildings will be encouraged to take the survey.
According to the HSE, asbestos is responsible for an estimated 4000 deaths each year and is the single greatest cause of work-related deaths in the UK. Results are expected to give an insight into awareness of the Duty to Manage Asbestos and highlight areas for raising awareness of the risks of asbestos in the workplace.
The Survey has the backing of high profile asbestos campaigners across the UK. Annette Brooke MP and Chair of the Asbestos in Schools Group welcomed the survey:
“This survey is a welcome step in the right direction. It is so vital that we highlight the dangers surrounding asbestos and I hope that participation in this survey is as wide as possible. ”
John Richards, Managing Director of analytical and surveying firm, Thames Laboratories said:
“With recent public sector funding cuts and the Government’s review of Health and Safety, we are concerned that this important subject maybe overlooked. Currently in the UK, more people are dying from asbestos exposure than in road accidents and yet our approach to asbestos still ranges from apathy to paranoia.
Recent conflicting reports produced from ATAC and HSE, and the issues of low level asbestos exposure, have led to the development of this research project, aimed at establishing what is really happening”.
Jon Murthy, Marketing & Communications Manager at UKAS said:
“This is the first industry initiative of its kind in which UKAS has participated and we hope to see this repeated annually to measure what improvements are happening within the asbestos sector. UKAS will play its role by ensuring the questionnaire is circulated to as many individuals as possible, from all industry sectors, via Unions, Trade Associations, Industry Institutions and Membership Organisations”.
The survey results will be published in a report in the summer 2011 via the campaign website www.asbestosinspectionbodies.co.uk and should highlight the issues arising from the most comprehensive review of the subject to date.
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