In this podcast, HSE experts discuss the legal obligation to manage asbestos in non-domestic buildings, highlight where asbestos is likely to be found and explain why it is dangerous. ----more---- In January 2024, HSE launched the Asbestos – Your Duty campaign, featuring updated web guidance, including new templates and explanatory videos. The steps to the legal duty to manage asbestos in buildings, and the importance of the campaign, are discussed by Tim Beaumont, HM Principal Inspector Health and Safety, Asbestos Cluster Lead and Samantha Lord, Chartered Occupational Hygienist & Principal Specialist Inspector both from HSE. They are joined by Craig Barker, Group Property FHS & Asbestos Manager at Marks and Spencer. During his 11 years with the company, Craig and his health and safety team have established robust ways of working to manage asbestos containing materials, developed training for employees, and put controls in place to ensure that the duty to manage asbestos is upheld and the processes are followed when any work is carried out on its buildings. For more information and to download HSE's free asbestos management plan template, visit: https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/duty/index.htm HSE Podcast - The duty to manage asbestos in buildings transcript Host (Mick Ord): Welcome to the HSE podcast, the latest in a series designed to help and support you because whether you are a business owner, a manager, or a worker. Health and safety is for everyone. In this episode we're taking a look at a hazardous material that has been banned in the UK for the past 25 years, but which still claims the lives of about 5, 000 people a year, more than the number of people killed on our roads. I'm Mick Ord and we're talking about asbestos. What it is, why it still causes so many deaths, how it can be managed properly and efficiently in the workplace, and what you can do to ensure that you or your employees are not exposed to it. This is all part of HSE's campaign, Asbestos - Your Duty. And, as I'm bound to mention a few times today, you can find the relevant information to help you on the Asbestos pages of HSE's website, https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/duty/ With me are three people on the frontline of asbestos awareness from very practical points of view. Tim Beaumont is HSE's Principal Inspector and a Senior Policy Advisor on asbestos. He's been with HSE since 1999 in a variety of operational and policy roles. His main work right now revolves around coordinating the delivery of the recommendations arising from the Work and Pension Select Committee inquiry into HSE's management of asbestos regulation. Samantha Lord is HSE's Chartered Occupational Hygienist and Principal Specialist Inspector. She's been with HSE for 15 years. But has been working in the area of asbestos for more than 26 years. She plays an integral role in supporting and enabling HSE's asbestos-related inspection programs, as well as their asbestos campaigns. And she also regularly engages with external partners about HSE's work on asbestos. And we're delighted that Craig Barker from Marks & Spencer has joined us too. Craig has 20 years of experience consulting and advising on asbestos, with the last 10 years in the retail sector for M&S, where he's the Group Property, Fire Health and Safety and Asbestos Manager. Since 2013, M&S has completely overhauled its approach to the management of asbestos-containing materials. Sixty per cent of the estate was built before the year 2000, meaning asbestos must be considered as a potential hazard. Craig and his health and safety team have established robust ways of working, developed training programs for employees, and put controls in place for any work carried out on the building's fabrics to ensure that the duty to manage asbestos is upheld, and the correct processes are followed. Craig will talk us through their approach to managing the risks of asbestos across their estate. Welcome all. Tim, can you explain in layman's terms what asbestos is? And how it causes so many deaths. [00:03:38] Tim Beaumont: Well, thanks, Mick. That's a really important question. Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral. When we say asbestos, actually there are a number of different types of asbestos. They're all found in the ground naturally and over many years we've been removing it. It has a number of different qualities that make it rather useful. First of all, it's cheap, it's widely distributed across the globe and easy to get to. Secondly, it's a really good fire retardant. Thirdly, it's a really good insulating material. So, for those three reasons, it has been used widely in construction, particularly over the last 150 years or so, but most of all, the second half of the 20th century. It's got these wonderful attributes that meant that it was cert to be used in a huge range of structures and properties to insulate and to prevent the spread of fire. The ...
