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Management Checklist

Asbestos Knowledge Base

The checklist here incorporates various information provided elsewhere for managing the asbestos Management Plan. It is provided for guidance only and will be found most appropriate on larger projects.

1 Setting Up the Management Process

  1. Understand the legal implications of the Asbestos Management Regulations for the management team and the safe systems of work required for managing asbestos in the workplace.
    1. Make particular reference to Regulation 4 - the Duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises.
    2. A decision will need to be made about how to prevent disturbance of ACMs / possible ACMs in any premises before a management plan is in place.
    3. A safe system of work will need to be introduced if there is a likelihood that ACMs are present. A permit to work procedure may be needed depending on the size and complexity of the premises.
  2. Decide on the planning approach you and your organisation need to take. Establish the key tasks with dates and resources. If the project is big enough, managers will need to use the full benefits of a project management approach. Smaller projects can be done with much simpler resourcing. All projects need to have rigorous risk assessments so that all concerned, from the CEO to the personnel in the workplace are aware of the risks being taken.
  3. If Project Management is going to be used;
    • The appointment of a project manager, with resourcing to assess and provide budgets for the assessment and maintenance processes.
    • The implementation of a management system to interface the asbestos register information with the scheduling, resourcing and costing data required by the project manager.
  4. Budget, appoint and train the key personnel and systems to manage the process.
    Before work commences on the asbestos management programme, it is important to identify the person within your organisation who will be responsible for the overall management of the programme. The right person for this pivotal role will vary from one organisation to another, depending on the organisational structure, and the roles and responsibilities of the personnel within them. For some companies, the Safety Officer, Occupational Hygienist or Safety, Health and Environment Manager may be the appropriate person; for others the maintenance manager or Estates manager may be more suitable. Factors which may affect the appointment include:
    1. Knowledge of the buildings and processes within them.
    2. Control over contractors brought onto site.
    3. Knowledge of future refurbishment programmes.
    4. Knowledge and experience of asbestos.
    5. Access to senior management to influence decisions.
    6. Organisational and IT skills.
    7. Training requirements.
    8. What is going to be the scope of the project? It may need to cross several departments.
    9. Are there additional training requirements on those who will oversee the project?
    10. How are you going to consult with employees and keep them informed?
    11. Decide on the scope of the project which may be across several departments and involve third parties and construction, maintenance or refurbishment deadlines.
    12. Decide on the additional training requirements for those including senior managers who need to oversee the project.
    13. Decide on how you are going to keep people informed about the progress of your plan.
  5. Decide how to approach the task of drawing up the Management Plan and initiate it.

2 Establish the Asbestos Recording System

  1. Establish an asbestos record with a list of buildings for which you are responsible. Include their identifiers, names, locations, addresses and so forth and catalogue the floors, rooms, cupboards, boiler houses, plant rooms, open voids and hidden spaces, heating and venting pipe work including radiators and radiator housing, roof areas, cellars, cavities, trunking, piping, cabling and other ducting, external attachments, pits, underground silos. In addition to the main floor plan, include any hidden area likely to contain ACMs.
  2. Make a schematic sketch map of each floor including the surrounding ground area within the building boundaries for which the duty holder is responsible and indicate the rooms and so on that have been identified.
  3. Update the Management Plan.

3 Assess the Risks

  1. Carry out a risk assessment for the conduct of the survey. The risks to surveyors, sampling personnel and other occupants should be reduced to as low as reasonably practicable. HSE guidance should be consulted. Safe work procedures, surveying in pairs, use of personal protective equipment and decontamination and disposal arrangements should all be considered. The requirements will vary with the circumstances of the survey.
  2. Appoint someone with the relevant expertise, consistent with the risk assessment and general knowledge of the site, to help plan a Presumptive Survey. In most cases it will be obvious to the duty holder how to proceed; a brand new single story tile roof building in a UK town is unlikely to be a high risk issue. A derelict power station is likely to be high risk. Expertise should be organised accordingly.
  3. Carry out the Survey Planning procedure, Preliminary site meeting and walk through with the surveyor.
  4. Carry out desk top study to plan the survey and provide the written plan for the main survey. Review the HSG264 format for presenting survey reports as contained in the Asbestos ToolKit™. Agree the specification and the method for recording and presenting data.
  5. Update the Management Plan.

4 Update and Maintain the Records

  1. Record the details found in the Asbestos ToolKit™ database and annotate the sketch maps appropriately using a coding system that easily identifies the ACMs. Commission a "Management or Refurbishment and Demolition" Survey if required.
  2. Update the database with copies of the survey report and check that all the information required is at hand. Re-commission the surveyor as required until the required information is made available.
  3. Update the Management Plan.

5 Plan to Manage the Asbestos

  1. Review the information regarding ACMs and decide with the advice of the surveyor and the duty holder's management team on the process to be taken with each and every instance of the ACMs found. The decision making process should be centred on a risk assessment for each item and the elimination of high risk issues.
  2. Complete the setting up of the Asbestos Register for the duty holder's domain by recording the decisions made in the buildings database together with the action plan required to manage the remaining ACMs. The action plan should include periodic inspection tasks by suitably qualified assessors with a reporting back procedure so that the database can be kept up to date.
  3. Disseminate the information about ACMs to the CEO and estate manager.
  4. Update the Management Plan.

6 Provide Information

  1. Make the ACM information available through a regularly updated enquiry system for anyone who has reason to receive it including;
    • all workers on site
    • employees and their representatives
    • 'front of house' personnel, including receptionists, who interface with visitors or the public
    • management teams
  2. Implement a permit to work or similar system for site workers and a signing system for access to ACM areas if the risks warrant this approach.
  3. Update the Management Plan.

7 Audit and Review the Use of Information

  1. Implement an audit and review system so that the ACM's are managed over time with periodic risk assessments and a notification system to alert the CEO and senior managers of any change.
  2. Improve the system so that all those who need to have access to and are seen to be accessing the information required
  3. Update the Management Plan and the review system within it.

8 Other Issues

  1. For larger enterprises where there are many locations or large or older industrial or military units to assess, a number of additional issues may need to be identified. These include the provision of periodic reporting between all the personnel involved in the process and shared data access using modern communications and computing systems.
  2. Update the Management Plan.