What is asbestos management?
Asbestos management is the duty to find out whether a building contains asbestos, record it, assess the risk, and manage it — in most non-domestic premises built before the ban.
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<a href="https://facilityoptix.co.uk/glossary/asbestos-management">What is asbestos management?</a> — diagram by
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</figure>The duty is to manage rather than to remove. Asbestos in good condition and unlikely to be disturbed is generally safer left in place and managed than removed.
The register and the management plan are the deliverables, and they have to reach anyone who might disturb the material — which means contractors, before they start, rather than a file in an office.
The register needs reviewing and updating as material is disturbed, removed or found, and a register that has not changed in a decade is either a very stable building or an unmaintained document.
In practice
A plan that exists and lives in the FM office.
A cabling contractor drills a wall at eight on a Saturday. He was never given the register and did not know to ask.
The duty is to make the information available to anybody liable to disturb the fabric, and 'it was available if they had asked' does not meet it.
The plan is only worth what reaches the person with the drill.
What goes wrong in practice
- A register that exists but is never issued to contractors before work.
- Presumed asbestos-containing materials never resolved by survey or sampling.
- Register not updated after removal or after new material is found.