The human cost of asbestos disease is devastating, however significant exposure is avoidable when asbestos removal projects are well managed. As clients are at the head of the procurement chain they have the final say on how these projects are managed, therefore they are in a position to play a major part in ensuring that asbestos exposure is avoided.
The aim of ARCA’s guidance is to help clients [such as, facility, estate and construction managers and architects] meet their legal requirements so that asbestos is dealt with in a controlled and safe manner.
The law requires that clients, make suitable arrangements for managing a project, and maintain and review these arrangements throughout the project to ensure health and safety risks are managed appropriately. Therefore this Guidance Note references clients’ legal duties, including those under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) and the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Commented Steve Sadley, Chief Executive of ARCA:
“Clients are not expected to be experts in either construction work or asbestos work, however, they are responsible for ensuring appropriate arrangements are in place to manage and organise projects.
This means appointing suitably competent people – such as ARCA members who are independently audited asbestos removal contractors and ATaC members who are UKAS accredited asbestos analysts – and providing them with sufficient information, time and resources to do the job properly. All helping to ensure projects are well planned and managed for the health and safety of the workforce, and also the public.”
ARCA have made the guidance freely available, and it can be downloaded here.