Biggart Baillie Solicitors

Quick Guides

Quick Guide to Asbestos Regulations

  1. The Asbestos Regulations affect owners, occupiers, and managers of and those responsible for non-domestic premises (“the Responsible Party”);

  2. The Responsible Party either has a legal duty to manage the risk from asbestos or a duty to co-operate with whoever manages the risk;

  3. The Responsible Party must find out if there is asbestos in the premises, its amount and what condition it is in;

  4. It must be presumed that materials contain asbestos unless there is strong evidence to the contrary;

  5. The Responsible Party must collate and keep up to date a record of the location and condition of the Asbestos Containing Materials (“ACMs”) or presumed ACMs in the premises;

  6. The risk from asbestos must be assessed and a plan prepared which sets out in detail how the risk is to be managed;

  7. All steps needed to put the plan into action must be taken by the Responsible Party;

  8. The plan and arrangements for dealing with any risk must be reviewed and monitored;

  9. Anyone who is liable to work on the asbestos or disturb it must be provided with information on its location and condition;

  10. ACMs may be present if a building was constructed or refurbished before blue and brown asbestos were banned in 1985 and in some cases ACMs were used up until 1999.

The information contained in this article is given for general information only, reflects the current law on the date of this article, and does not constitute legal advice on any specific matter