Asbestos did not disappear when it was banned in the UK in 1999. Asbestos remains in millions of homes and buildings today and can become dangerous when disturbed or damaged.
The HSE are currently running 2 asbestos campaigns:
Asbestos and You highlights the risk of asbestos to tradespeople
Asbestos – Your Duty to raise awareness of the legal duty to manage asbestos in buildings
Through these campaigns, they provide free resources to help prevent exposure to asbestos fibres.
HSE’s Asbestos and You campaign urges tradespeople to stay aware of hidden asbestos and protect themselves and others from exposure to asbestos fibres during their work.
Every tradesperson is likely to undertake work in a building that contains asbestos at some point. Those carrying out repairs or refurbishment work are at a higher risk of disturbing asbestos, especially when working in houses built before the year 2000.
The Your Duty campaign aims to reach those responsible for maintenance and repair of non-domestic buildings built before the year 2000.
This includes factories, warehouses, offices and shops; and public buildings like hospitals, schools, premises used for religious worship, museums and libraries.
To comply with the law, asbestos in these buildings must be properly managed.
There are three main levels of information, instruction and training. These relate to:
Asbestos awareness
Non-licensable work with asbestos including NNLW
Licensable work with asbestos.
Attending a training course on its own will not make a worker competent. Competence is developed over time by implementing and consolidating skills learnt during training, on-the-job learning, instruction and assessment.
It is important that the level of information, instruction and training is appropriate for the work and the roles undertaken by each worker (and supervisor).
If you require UKATA Asbestos training, or you would like more information, feel free to get in touch:
01782 438813
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