Following an asbestos inspection or survey, you can expect to receive an asbestos report from the surveying company. This asbestos report will summarise the findings of the surveyor, and will normally start with any historical information he has established about the property in question: its age, additions and modifications and details of any asbestos containing materials previously removed. A summary of the building as it stood at the time of the survey, its structure, materials used and current use would normally follow in a typical asbestos report.
Probably the most important part of the asbestos report is the section which includes the asbestos risk assessments. Usually containing photographs and a detailed, quantitative scoring of the condition and circumstances of each material suspected to contain asbestos, this part of the report will form the asbestos register: a list of confirmed or presumed asbestos containing materials which the duty-holder must manage.
Most asbestos reports will contain advice about how to construct a management plan – a document setting out the duty-holder’s arrangements to control the risk that his asbestos containing materials present to people using his property. These people will include staff, members of the public or customers, and particularly contractors working on the building. The plan will also contain details of how the duty holder will train his staff, how he will prevent uncontrolled work on the materials and what will happen in an emergency if asbestos fibres are accidentally released.
Finally the asbestos report will contain advice on how to proceed in reducing risk from the materials found to contain asbestos. The surveyor’s recommendations do not form a mandatory part of the asbestos report, but he will have the experience to provide a client with a reasonable way forward, helping him to set out a programme of work which will steadily reduce risk in a manner which the company can handle financially.
