The hottest topic this month appears to be asbestos and indemnity insurance. Recent enquiries to us indicate that there is a problem with insuring organisations wanting to carry out asbestos management. We know that at least one major facilities management organisation has backed away from offering the service.
A RICS member has stated to us that they have been advised to keep well away from any asbestos work. The RICS are now hurriedly preparing a guidance document for their members with the help of HSE. You can read an interim statement from the RICS on our web site.
In the meantime, the Health & Safety press is peppered with items about compensation claims by victims. The widow of a former power station worker has received £4.37m compensation via a Leeds based judgement. Her husband Anthony Farmer died in August 1999 from mesothelioma.
Reforms to Scottish Law will now allow terminally ill asbestos sufferers to take legal action within a year. The move is expected to open the floodgates to claims from asbestos sufferers, and a consequential escalation in insurance premiums.
Even more worrying to many professionals is a judgement by the US Supreme Court ruling that railway workers may recover damage for fear of developing asbestos related cancer, even if they are suffering from some other disease which is not itself a cause from cancer, but stems from exposure.
We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that asbestos related deaths continue to rise and currently exceed the number of road deaths in the UK. The HSE’s new CAW 2002 and the duty to manage asbestos is intended to reverse the upward trend.
We are excited about the progress we have made with our new Enterprise Edition of the ToolKit CS™ product and will be showing the product at our Bletchley Park event. ToolKit CS™ can now hold your data in SQL format and allow web browser access from wherever you determine and by whoever you allow. Any browser can be used across the Internet, your intranet or extranet. Details of CDM projects and Asbestos sites can be accessed and documents downloaded in a number of popular formats for onward use and editing. The product is fully integrated and backed up with on line auditing and other features as recommended by the HSE.
We can now supply ToolKit CS™ 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.
We are rapidly running out of places for our next Construction Industry Seminar to be held at Bletchley Park on Thursday 10th April 2003. The agenda will include presentations by the HSE, our Partners and ourselves. Please contact us immediately if you would like to join us. The focus of the event is the new Duty to Manage Asbestos – Regulation 4 and how to use the next twelve months wisely.
The Agenda includes;
The charge for the event is £90 plus VAT with a discount for ToolKit™ users. The 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 or contact us by phone to ensure your place.
Please review our web pages or call us (01525 850 080) for more information on our CDM and Asbestos Management products.