Is asbestos awareness training mandatory even if the employer can state that work will only take place in premises free of ACMs and a survey has been carried out as required by the Regulations.

I ask because there seems to be a blanket requirement for all site ops to have received the asbestos awareness training.

Ray, I was very surprised to see what the ACOP says in paragraph 234. It mentions in Reg 10 demonstrating the premises are free of ACMs and the duty to manage in regs 4 and 5 etc.

in other words it suggests to me that if you have the Asbestos Survey Report that should prove there is no asbestos. Unless it points to some left behind.

Are you suggesting that we cannot rely on the survey that we pay lots of £££££££s for.

David, thanks but why would HSE in their ACOP allow for relying on the Survey and not doing the training.

You use the words "may have been flawed". Do you, or anyone else have any experince of flawed asbestos surveys.

As others have already pointed out, it's best not to wholly rely on asbestos surveys. From experience I can think of examples of cases where, to almost quote David B, survey procedures were flawed, errors were made and some ACMs remained unidentified or undiscovered.

One significant reason for surveys being inaccurate is that they were carried out in too much of a hurry. This was certainly the case some 10 or more years ago with some schools which were subject to surveys commissioned by local authorities as part of big contracts to be completed within a limited period of time, i.e. 6 weeks of summer vacation when staff and pupils were away.

One good example was that of a primary school which decided to replace some elderly windows with double-glazed units. Although the report of the asbestos survey carried out at the school several years before made no mention of ACMs adjacent to the windows, one or more people including an experienced building surveyor were suspicious of panelling around the window frames. Therefore, they arranged for sampling which confirmed that it was indeed ACM. As a result, the panels were removed with appropriate precautions before the windows were replaced. By sheer coincidence, some months later the school was one of several local ones picked for a visit by a HSE inspector as part of what was probably a national survey to assess how well or otherwise schools and local education authorities were managing ACMs in their buildings. I joined the visit and was as delighted as the inspector to hear the headteacher and caretaker describe the window scenario. It was also good to see that they had clearly labelled ACMs in the basement boiler room so as to leave visiting contractors in no doubt as to their nature.

Graham B