There is not a Law in the UK that say’s you must have a survey but within [CAR 2006] it clearly creates a “Duty to manage asbestos” and to manage asbestos you need to know you have got it. The asbestos survey identifies asbestos and assists the duty holder in the compilation of the management plan.
The reason why this is done is to help prevent the loss of lives through lack of knowledge on the where abouts and condition of asbestos containing materials.There are two main types of survey. The first and most common is the asbestos management survey. This is carried out to identify asbestos, carry out a material risk assessment for each positive occurance, complete a priority assessment if required and produce an asbestos register in an easy to read format thus helping the duty holder to fullfill their duties. The extreme one is the asbestos pre demolition asbestos survey which is done in order to identify any asbestos containing materials so that they may be removed prior to the building being demolished.
There is a variation of the predemolition survey and this is called the pre refurbishment survey. As the name suggests this is done to specific areas of a building, floor, roof or room prior to any works so that any effected asbestos can be removed.All of the above are aimed to help prevent the loss of life. Simply by reading the asbestos survey report, appropriate methods of work can be adopted.
For further advice and information; please contact us on 0845 26 00 277 or email us through our contact form.
