The desktop study offers a short term option in order to facilitate long term compliance with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

Achieving compliance with asbestos health and safety legislation can be both daunting and expensive. Redhills recognises this and in response to our customers’ needs has developed the desktop study.

What is a desktop study?

Redhills desktop study is the first step to putting your business on track for full compliance with current legislation regarding asbestos. This service examines what you have done to date and identifies any shortfalls. A simple schedule is then created to help you plan your activities and show your route to compliance with the current and future asbestos legislation.

As part of the study we will:

• Review all current asbestos information held by your company
• Clarify which procedures are already in place for the management of asbestos
• Identify the steps required to achieve full compliance with current asbestos legislation
• Provide a route to compliance with easy to follow directions
• Advise which procedures or adaptations are required to ensure all reasonably practicable steps are taken to manage the risk from asbestos

Redhills desktop study will provide guidance to achieve compliance with asbestos legislation, including specific detailed recommendations, budgets, timetable of actions and a summary.

We will also take the time to help you understand current legislative requirements, ensuring that the strategy recommended is appropriate and proportionate to the size and nature of your business.

Asbestos Management Plans & Policies

The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 state that all duty holders with known or presumed asbestos within their premises must have an effective written asbestos management plan in place.

What is a management plan?

An asbestos management plan is a document that identifies the risk posed by asbestos present and sets out procedures to control these risks. A management plan is a regulatory requirement that uses the data accumulated from asbestos surveys to manage the asbestos.

An asbestos management plan will typically include:

• Policies and procedures for emergencies, refurbishments, day-to-day operations and for less usual work or tasks
• Key asbestos information – usually from an asbestos survey
• Risk assessments of each occurrence of asbestos
• Action plan
• Monitoring & re-inspection regimes
• Training requirements
• Roles & responsibilities
• Dissemination of information
• Duties of the Asbestos Coordinator

As a minimum, the arrangements within the plan should be reviewed every six months in accordance with the HSC (Health and Safety Council) Approved Code of Practice. Our Management Plan Team Redhills has a dedicated compliance department that works with our clients to produce bespoke plans. A member of our compliance team can contact you to discuss your requirements for asbestos management, your responsibilities and any existing arrangements in place. If you are unsure of where your company stands regarding compliance, you can opt for a desktop study that will clearly identify any gaps, if they exist, and offer a step by step guide to compliance.

With a comprehensive understanding of your needs, we will produce a tailored asbestos management plan in accordance with current regulations that will help you to manage the asbestos within your property compliantly and proportionately to the risk.

In addition, we are able to offer an implementation meeting to aid the initial setup of the processes involved in the management of asbestos materials. We also offer reviews of your management plan on a six-monthly basis to ensure your ongoing compliance with legislation.

Key steps to your asbestos management plan:

• Consultation: to assess your requirements and study of existing data and arrangements
• Preparation of asbestos management plan
• Review of your plan with you to discuss its impact and ensure recommendations meet with your needs
• Meeting with you to explain the details of the management plan and its implementation
• Six-monthly review of management plan – a service we can offer you or you can conduct in-house.

Asbestos Policies

Redhills has a consultancy team committed to producing client-specific policies. The client benefits from the experience our policy team has of tailoring policies to many different businesses and associations.

What is an asbestos policy?

An Asbestos Policy provides a framework for asbestos management and acknowledges the organisation’s responsibilities regarding asbestos.

An effective policy should include the following:

• Introduction
• Policy statement
• Compliance strategy
• Asbestos records
• Personnel responsible for asbestos management