Newsletter March 2003

Yes; no; yes, spring is just round the corner.

Yes, new asbestos legislation leaves us only 14 months to comply.

Yes, we have a free seminar to tell you about the legal and management aspects of the new law.

Yes, the next Construction Industry Seminar will be at Bletchley Park, home of the Enigma code breakers, and;

Yes, the HSE will be there to answer your questions.

Yes, we have some offers on our CDM and Asbestos compliance solutions.

HSE Asbestos Conference - 24 February 2003

The much delayed conference chaired by Sandra Caldwell, the HSE’s Director, Health Policy, took place to an invited audience at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster last week.

Keynote Speaker – Minister for Work

The keynote speech by Nick Brown, the Minister for Work, spelt out the Asbestos Message;

The overwhelming balance of opinion is in favour of the new duty to manage asbestos; the duty is proportional to the risk. The big players including the Ministry of Defence, large local authorities including Birmingham and London have embraced the new duty. They acknowledge that they have significant responsibilities and want to get it right. The political opposition, although strong at the end of the political process, failed to offer an argument against the new regulations. Having decided to implement the change, we must all set out how to do it and manage the new duty.

• "Yes, the Government wants to take stock in 12 months time – actually before November 2003 to allow the due process to take place by the end of this year."
• "No, we will not be changing our minds."
• "Yes, 18 months is fair for the implementation stage and for everyone to find out how to do it."

The Minister continued,

Side arguments, including the thought that white asbestos is okay, are not supported by the government; we do not intend to wait 30 years for the answer.

The Duty to Manage applies to a large group of people many of whom have not had duties in health & safety before. We have embarked on a 5 year campaign to raise awareness of the need to change. We have to start now to work towards compliance. 2000 organisations have signed up to get the message across with seminars and workshops and so on.

He added the following comments;

• The Duty to manage is NOT the Duty to Remove.
• HSE websites have been improved to help get the message across.
• If we do nothing 5000 people a year will be dying from this dreadful disease.
• We have to get the message across.

HSE Presentation

Bill MacDonald, HSE Head of Asbestos Policy, gave an outline of the current regulation 4 duties and the recent issues that the department have had to deal with. He emphasised that;

• "the clock is ticking" with a HUGE amount of work to be done by duty holders and only 14 months to go.
• This is a duty to manage NOT a duty to survey.
• If asbestos is in good condition, leave it in place.
• Duty Holders need to define their own needs for management systems and not just accept their surveyor’s word processed solution.

The nature of the duty holder had been changed because the earlier proposals to appoint the occupier did not reflect the commercial issues of ownership. The ACOP to regulation 4 issued on 16 December 2002 was the conclusion of years of consultation and debate. The awareness campaign and the joint guidance was now in place so it is time to reflect on the progress to date.

Some organisations are applying themselves to what needs to be done. But much needs to be done. The next 14 months will be a huge challenge!

The HSE’s strategic approach already embraces the rail network, utilities, pubic bodies, local authorities and hospitals. He again emphasised that the public pressure to REMOVE asbestos must be withstood. Besides being ‘unnecessary’, Bill stated that removal will provide a huge problem for disposal of asbestos waste because of the thousands of tons of the product still in place.

The HSE’s army of inspectors have already made over 300 visits to key duty holders to engage them early and cajole the management into action. In addition, this year's October European Health & Safety Week is focusing on chemicals. This will provide another opportunity to increase awareness of the regulations on asbestos management.

The 12 month review will, as the Minister said, take place by November 2003. “If the message is not getting across; we will have to take corrective actions to put it right.”

The HSE's Expectations

• Duty holder must adopt a precautionary approach NOW
• Carry out condition checks on buildings SOON
• Plan a compliance strategy - START NOW

Bill commented on the recording of information. Was it right that organisations should record information based on a surveyor’s word processing package or on the needs of the business? Duty holders should find a solution that was right for them to help them manage.

He made the following comments;

• There is too much removal. More people will die than if we manage asbestos in situ and the system will become overwhelmed.
• People need to take appropriate precautions; hard asbestos is generally ‘safe’ unless you drill it or abuse it, soft asbestos needs much more care.
• Mortgage providers are insisting on retentions against removal. HSE needs to apply pressure here.
• Poor quality surveyors are giving a false sense of security. They inflate costs and duty holders unable to meet the cost give up the struggle. Duty holders need to demand high standards of surveyors.
• Overcharging is happening. The HSE are looking for evidence of this and will take this into account when re-licensing contractors if the evidence is available.

Conclusions

• We are just scraping the surface – we have a huge task ahead.
• Must start now to have any chance of getting through in the next 14 months
• HSE need partners to achieve their goals
• HSE need more ideas on how to meet their goals and are in listening mode!

Asbestos Law Unmasked

Ai Solutions & Heald Solicitors form asbestos focussed partnership

Our joint seminar with Heald Solicitors will take place in Milton Keynes on Thursday 6th March 2003. This free late morning event will last about 90 minutes and include presentations by Heald and ourselves about the new asbestos regulations and our ToolKit CS™ asbestos management solution. The aim of the event is to brief local business on how Heald and ourselves can help them.

This event is nearly full, so sign up for this free event by calling 01525 850 080 or contact us for more details as soon as possible.

Construction Industry Seminar – Unravelling the Asbestos Web

Our next Construction Industry Seminar will be held at Bletchley Park on Thursday 10th April 2003. The agenda will include presentations by the HSE, our Partners and ourselves. The focus of the event is the new Duty to Manage Asbestos – Regulation 4 and how to use the next thirteen months wisely.

The Agenda includes;

• News Round Up – a review of the latest Health & Safety information
  Mike Stokes, Health & Safety Director, Mouchel Consulting
• Asbestos Law Unmasked
  Caroline Wilton, Heald Solicitors
• Delegating & Subrogating Responsibility for Health & Safety
  Bruce Calder, Callsafe
• The Bletchley Park Project – our case study using the Asbestos ToolKit CS™
  Shaun Armstrong, Operations Director, Bletchley Park
• Five Down and Thirteen To Go – Update on the new Asbestos Regulations
  Brian Trevette, HSE
• Management Tools; Web browsers - Intranets - handhelds - data collection devices
  Ai Solutions
• Lunch
• Tour of Bletchley Park and Project

This event will last for most of the day including a free tour of Bletchley Park to see the progress of the asbestos management project which, in time, will become a showpiece project using our software.

This promises to be another popular event at a really interesting location, so please sign up now to ensure your place.

ToolKit CS™ for Asbestos and CDM Management

Our ToolKit CS™ product is now available from standalone to multi-site, running CDM and Asbestos Management applications. Supported by our Knowledge Bases, we have the finest tool available to support enterprises and local government in complying with their legal, regulatory requirements. See our product information pages for more information.

ToolKit CS™ Winter Offers (to 31 March 2003)

ToolKit CS™ - CDM and/or Asbestos Compliance

New Customers purchasing ToolKit CS™ CDM

Prices for the CDM product are similar to previous versions except that at the basic level, there is no 'branding' of the CDM product for Planning Supervisor, Contractor and so on. We are currently shipping all the functionality code to every customer. Purchase a standalone version now and we will ship the full Corporate functionality for £1,495 plus £299 pa standalone or £3,995 plus £799pa for a 1 concurrent network license if you use a network.

Customers purchasing ToolKit CS™ Asbestos Standalone

Asbestos ToolKit CS™ standalone is available for £995 plus £299 pa; we are offering a 20% discount on the license fee plus £299 pa for orders placed and paid for by 31 March 2003.

New Customers purchasing both CDM and Asbestos

We are offering both CDM and Asbestos on the same networked database for approximately 140% of the CDM price. This means that the Asbestos module is available at approximately 60% discount when taken with CDM.