Most duty-holders have an asbestos register. Far fewer can prove it is current, that the management plan has been reviewed, that re-inspections happened when they were supposed to, and that every contractor who drilled a wall last year was shown the register first. The paperwork usually exists. It is the chain between the paperwork and the person holding the drill that breaks.
An independent compliance audit finds that break before an inspector or an incident does. We are an HSE-licensed asbestos contractor, licence 242606081, and we audit against the same standard our own work is inspected to.
The question that starts every audit
If the HSE walked into your building tomorrow and asked for your asbestos file, would it hold? Not whether there is a file, but whether it would hold. Could you show that the register covers every part of the demise, that presumed materials are marked as presumed, that the re-inspection two Octobers ago actually happened, and that the contractor who replaced the lighting was given the information before he started?
Those are the questions an inspector asks, and they are the questions this audit answers.
What Regulation 4 actually requires of you
The duty to manage asbestos sits in Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. In plain terms it requires you to take reasonable steps to find out whether asbestos-containing materials are present and what condition they are in; to presume materials contain asbestos unless there is strong evidence they do not; to record what you find and keep that record up to date; to assess the risk and set out how you will manage it in a written plan; to review that plan; and to make the information available to anyone liable to disturb the material.
That last duty is the one most often missed. The regulations do not ask you to hold the information, they ask you to give it to the people who could disturb the material. A register locked in a facilities office serves nobody. Our guide to the duty to manage asbestos sets out the legal position in full.
The duty applies to non-domestic premises and to the common parts of domestic buildings. Residential managing agents and RMCs are frequently surprised by that second part: the flats are domestic, but the stairwells, risers, tank rooms and roof voids serving them are not.
What we audit — the eleven-point check
- Is there a register, and does it cover every part of the demise?
- Are presumed materials clearly distinguished from sampled and analysed ones?
- Is the survey type right for how the building is actually being used?
- Are material assessment scores present, and are they defensible?
- Does the priority assessment reflect current occupancy and activity, not the position five years ago?
- Is there a written management plan, or a register pretending to be one?
- Is a re-inspection interval set, has it been met, and can you evidence it?
- Is labelling in place where labelling is appropriate?
- Does the contractor sign-in and permit-to-work chain actually put the register in front of the person with the drill?
- Is there an emergency procedure for accidental disturbance, and does anyone on site know it?
- Are the records retrievable — clearance certificates, consignment notes, air test results, all of it?
What you get back
A written audit report with every point marked pass, gap or urgent. Photographs of anything found in poor condition. A prioritised action list with realistic timescales rather than a flat list of failures. And a plain statement of what closing each gap would involve, so you can budget it.
It is written so it can be handed to a director, a client or an insurer without translation. If the underlying survey work needs bringing up to standard we can carry out management and refurbishment surveys, and rebuild the asbestos management plan from the audit findings.
The annual cycle
Managed portfolios tend to settle into a yearly rhythm: audit, close the gaps, re-inspect on schedule, refresh the register, re-audit. Holding that cycle is straightforward once it exists and painful to rebuild from scratch every year, which is what happens when the person who knew the file leaves.
We can hold the cycle for a portfolio. Using one HSE-licensed contractor for audit, survey, removal and clearance also means one accountable party rather than four suppliers pointing at each other when something is found mid-works. Fixed written quote within 24 hours.
Multi-site portfolios
Schools, retail estates, industrial parks, housing stock and healthcare buildings are audited to the same format, so a whole portfolio can be compared on one page and the worst sites dealt with first. We work with main contractors, public sector estates teams and housing associations on exactly that basis.
Where removal is needed it runs through our own licensed teams — see commercial asbestos removal — and hands back with independent four-stage clearance and a certificate of reoccupation. If you are not sure which survey your building needs, our guide to choosing the right asbestos survey explains the difference.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the duty-holder under CAR 2012?
The duty-holder is whoever has responsibility for the maintenance and repair of non-domestic premises, either through a contract or a tenancy. Where no such agreement exists, the duty falls on whoever has control of the premises. In practice that means the landlord, the tenant, the managing agent or an owner-occupier, depending entirely on what the lease and the management agreement say.
Does the duty to manage apply to my building?
It applies to all non-domestic premises, and to the common parts of domestic buildings such as blocks of flats. Individual flats are domestic and fall outside it, but the stairwells, risers, plant rooms and roof spaces serving them do not. That distinction catches out a lot of residential managing agents.
How often should an asbestos register be reviewed?
There is no single fixed interval in the regulations. The requirement is that the record is kept up to date and the plan reviewed, which in practice means an annual review as a minimum, a re-inspection of material condition at an interval justified by risk, and an immediate update whenever building work, damage or a new survey changes what is known.
What is the difference between a register and a management plan?
A register records what asbestos is present, where it is and what condition it is in. A management plan sets out what you are going to do about it: who is responsible, how the material will be monitored, what the re-inspection interval is, how contractors are informed, and what happens if it is disturbed. A register on its own does not satisfy Regulation 4.
Do I need a compliance audit if I already have a survey?
A survey tells you what was there on the day it was done. An audit tests whether your ongoing management of it stands up: whether the record is current, whether re-inspections happened, whether the plan has been reviewed, and whether the information actually reaches the people who need it. Those are different questions, and a survey does not answer them.
What happens if the HSE finds our records inadequate?
Enforcement action can follow. That ranges from advice and improvement notices requiring you to put matters right within a set period, upwards depending on the seriousness of what is found. The practical point is that inadequate records are usually discovered either during an inspection or after an incident, and the second is a far worse time to find out.
