The importance of an asbestos survey cannot be understated for dutyholders of commercial, industrial and shared domestic premises, as well as employers. Under the Control of Asbestos Regulations (2012), the responsibility to manage the presence and condition of asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) lies in the hands of the building’s dutyholder. Under the same regulations, employers have a duty to prevent their employees from being exposed to asbestos while at work, or they could be charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act or various asbestos regulations. Therefore, the duty to manage asbestos within your premises/workplace is a legal requirement.
To ensure your premises/workplace are safe and fully compliant with Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regulations, keep reading to learn more about the importance of an asbestos survey, including a recent case study.
What Is An Asbestos Survey?
An asbestos survey is a method of assessing whether a material, product, room or building contains asbestos. This involves compiling information about the places/items being inspected, including:
- Building plans.
- Site layouts.
- Old asbestos surveys/registers.
- Any removal certificates that may be present from past removal works.
Our fully trained asbestos consultants will then undertake on-site inspections and collect any bulk samples to be sent to an independent UKAS-accredited laboratory. The samples can then be confirmed for the presence, type and condition of asbestos at hand.
Finally, all of this information will be collated into a comprehensive report of the asbestos survey. This should show the exact locations, quantities, conditions, types of asbestos and surface treatment of the ACMs. Any areas that consultants did not access should be noted within the survey, along with the reasons why.
There are two types of asbestos survey, Refurbishment & Demolition Surveys (also known as an R&D survey, previously referred to as a type 3 asbestos survey) and Asbestos Management Surveys (formerly known as a type 2 asbestos survey).
Refurbishment & Demolition Asbestos Surveys
A Refurbishment & Demolition Asbestos Survey must legally be carried out at any premises that have significant maintenance, refurbishment or demolition works planned. This is because asbestos fibres within the fabric of a building can become airborne if they are damaged or disturbed – posing the risk of serious health issues for those exposed. Hence, the aim of an R&D survey is to locate all ACMs before any construction or demolition work is undertaken.
Due to the destructive inspection practices used, it is vital that the premises are fully vacant during an R&D survey.
Asbestos Management Surveys
An Asbestos Management Survey aims to locate any ACMs that could be disturbed during the normal occupancy of the building. In comparison to the more visual and intrusive methods used for an R&D survey, an asbestos management survey adopts a more modest approach (e.g. accessing dry risers, removing ceiling tiles, etc.).
Due to this more modest approach, the building being inspected during an asbestos management survey is safe to remain occupied.
To determine which type of asbestos survey your premises may need, click here.
How Important Is An Asbestos Survey?
The importance of an asbestos survey lies within the threat to health & safety, as well as legal implications, that can occur as a result of not carrying this procedure out for your premises. If asbestos regulations are broken within a workplace, this could cause employees to be exposed to the substance at work. This is very dangerous for their health, as inhalation of disturbed asbestos fibres can cause serious diseases, such as mesothelioma (a type of cancer that affects the lining of the lungs), asbestosis (a chronic lung disease) and pleural thickening (a thickening of scar tissue around the lining of the lungs).
This is another reason why it is crucial as an employer to manage the risk of asbestos within your workplace. In August of 2024, a Ford car parts centre dealt with the risk of asbestos within their work premises safely and compliantly, by carrying out an on-site asbestos survey and suspending operations after ACMs were found to be present.
According to the BBC, Ford said a “low percentage” of chrysotile (white) asbestos was found in cement at the car parts centre in Daventry, Northamptonshire. This discovery meant that on-site picking and putaway operations were stopped while external specialist cleaning took place.
The centre also put a “contingency action” in place to have car part orders re-routed to Cologne, Germany and Valencia, Spain which can be supplied from these locations and shipped to the UK and Ireland – despite a longer lead time as a result.
To read more about the news story, click here.
Which Asbestos Services Do We Provide?
As well as R&D surveys and Asbestos Management Surveys, our professional asbestos contractors can also provide you with an Asbestos Management Plan, Asbestos Removal Management and Asbestos Re-Inspections.
After an asbestos survey has been carried out at your premises, an Asbestos Management Plan must be put in place to manage your asbestos obligations and combat any further risk of people in your building, or on your site, becoming exposed to asbestos.
If you need help managing the asbestos removal contract for your premises, our team of licensed asbestos specialists can provide Asbestos Removal Management to assist you with:
- Preparing the specification for the works.
- Managing the tendering process – assessing quotations and vetting removal contractors, etc.
- Performing regular site audits.
- Producing documentation to show the removal works were completed to a satisfactory standard.
If the ACMs detected during your asbestos survey were in an overall good condition, our asbestos consultants may have advised you to leave the materials in situ while carrying out consistent compliance checks. Our Asbestos Re-Inspection services can help you with this, by regularly checking the ACMs to ensure they do not pose a threat to health.
For a worker’s guide to asbestos safety, click here.
What Types Of Buildings Do We Provide Asbestos Surveys For?
Get A Free Asbestos Survey Quote Today
As we’ve now established, the importance of an asbestos survey cannot be understated. Our friendly and knowledgeable team, based across Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire, are always happy to discuss your unique project requirements throughout the UK. We can help you arrange any of our bespoke asbestos service packages, tailored to you and your commercial, industrial or shared domestic premises.
Contact us today to avoid punishments and costly fines for non-compliance.
