Actions, surveying, where might it be within the property

Do you have a problem?

If you own or use a building built before the year 2000 there is a chance of the building containing ACM’s and the law requires the material to be managed to control the risk.

Actions

1) If the building was built after the beginning of the year 2000, then you need to record this fact and take no further action.

2) If you are not responsible for repair or maintenance in the building, such as a school or church hall, you need to ask for a copy of the asbestos management plan and any revisions, this will ensure Trustee Boards and Leaders are aware of the materials present and the emergency procedures should accidental damage occur.

3) If you own or have a fully maintain and repair lease on a building, you will need to appoint a ‘competent person’ as a “duty holder”, who will have legal responsibilities for asbestos management.

Surveying

Firstly we need to find the asbestos. This needs to be undertaken by a “competent person”, such as somebody who holds a P402 certificate or equivalent. There are two types of asbestos surveys:

Management and Maintenance Survey This is the normal survey and is needed on all buildings built before the year 2000. The survey allows the identified ACMs to be managed and normal maintenance to be undertaken on the building, such as painting, boiler servicing, light fitting replacement.

Demolition and Refurbishment Survey

This type survey is required if you are planning any works in the building that will damage the fabric of the building, for example, the removal or penetration of any walls or ceilings. Due to the very nature of this survey it does tend to damage the building and sometimes cannot be undertaken until the building is dead, ready for the construction works.

Competent surveying companies

There are a number of local and national companies offering surveys, and Groups, Districts even Counties/Areas/Regions may consider coordinating an approach to such companies to try to get a deal on a larger number of surveys.

Before engaging the services of a surveying organisation, the Trustee Board should be satisfied they are competent to undertake the survey. They should check they also have a quality management system suitable for asbestos surveying work. If the company holds UKAS accreditation to ISO/EN 17020 this may count towards your due diligence (defence) if problems were identified later. 

Where might asbestos be present in Scout premises?

There are approximately 4,000 products that are known to contain asbestos, and it’s exceptionally hard to identify visually or without being an expert.

Asbestos is most likely to be found in Scout premises in the following forms (but may be present in other products):

• Asbestos Insulating Board (AIB) partition walls, ceiling tiles, heater cupboards, door panels, fire surrounds;
• Asbestos cement products such as roof and wall cladding, boiler and insulator flues, fire surrounds, gutters, rain water pipes, water tanks and storage heaters;
• Loose asbestos packing between floors and partition walls;
• Possible sprayed asbestos on structural beams and girders;
• Lagging on pipework and boilers;
• Textured Coating (Artex) on floors and ceilings
• Other products such as vinyl floor tiles, toilet cisterns, toilet seats, rope seals, gaskets on boilers, sink pad, sealants/bitumen, and roofing felts and shingles.

If you’re not sure of what these items look like, check out these helpful guidelines provided by the HSE.

Some materials obviously do not contain asbestos, such as floorboards, glass, brick and stone. Unless there is ‘strong evidence’ to suggest asbestos is not present, such as a sample being analysed by a UKAS Accredited Laboratory, you must assume it is present. Do not be tempted to take samples yourself or to disturb any suspicious material, as you may inadvertently release fibres. Do not break or damage any material, which may contain asbestos in order to try to identify it.