Non-domestic Premises
Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR 2012) contains an explicit duty on the owners and occupiers of non-domestic premises, who have repair and maintenance responsibilities, to assess and manage the risk of asbestos.
The ‘duty to manage‘ requires you to manage the risk of asbestos by:
- finding out if there is asbestos in the premises (or assessing if ACM’s are liable to be present and making a presumption that materials contain asbestos, unless you have strong evidence that they do not), its location and what condition it is in;
- making and keeping up-to-date records of the location and condition of the ACM’s or presumed ACM’s in your premises;
- assessing the risk from the material;
- preparing a plan that sets out in detail, how you are going to manage the risk from this material;
- taking the steps needed to put your plan into action;
- reviewing and monitoring your plan and the arrangements made to put it in place; and
- setting up a system for providing information on the location and condition of the material to anyone who is liable to work on or disturb it.
ACM’s may be present in a non-domestic building(s) if it was constructed or refurbished before 2000. All asbestos use was prohibited by 1999. You need to do all that you reasonably can to identify these materials.
