Surveyor prosecuted for failing to carry out an asbestos survey

KENNETH JENKINS
Member - 6 posts

This is the tip of a very large iceberg!!!

Its time the HSE enabled companies within the asbestos industry to help enforce the laws that have been blatently ignored since the act was passed to control asbestos.

Since the HSE are clearly unable to monitor the situation this has allowed many Landlords, builders, demolition companies, housing associations and a vast array of other companies with a duty to manage to ignore the laws under current legislation.

It is crystal clear as a P402 surveyor in the asbestos industry the general attitude is when somebody tells them i.e. Their Insurance company, Mortgage lender or in rare cases the HSE that they have to have a survey carried out they will only then proceed to comply to the law however with the general idea that it is another way for somebody to make money out of them and in truth these people have scarce regard for the safety of their staff.

Walk down any main high street in the country and go into the shops one by one asking if they have an asbestos register? most will look at you as if you are an Alien from another Planet, some will reply (depite never having had a survey carried out) we have no asbestos in this building and yet l have stood looking at asbestos containing products whilst this has been said and l guarantee that of all the shops you visit most will not have a register for the asbestos.

Ask the 1000s of people dying of Asbestosis if they are happy with the way that current legislation is being enforced to prevent new cases of Asbestosis.
To late for them but what about the people now being exposed every day through their employers reluctance to spend money controlling the asbestos in their premises. WHERE IS THE EMPLOYEES SAFEGUARD IF NOBODY IS CONTROLLING THE SITUATION?

It is not an excuse for the HSE to say that they are over stretched in all areas of Health and Safety and do not have the manpower and time to resolve the issues of enforcement as far as myself and every other P402 asbestos surveyors are concerned the HSE are drastically failing in their duty to protect the public from exposure to asbestos.

We are licensed by the BOHS why will they not use us to help monitor the companies failing to comply to the law, give us some type of form to approach these conpanies which can then be forwarded to the HSE in cases of the duty holder refusing to comply to the law.

They have shown one man getting fined this to all asbestos surveyors is a token fine to say look at us doing our job however the reality is that the job is not being done and until they enlist help from the very people who are in the asbestos industry it will be years before the law is complied to and mostly at the instigation of insurance companies not the HSE.

At the end of the day this is not about money or fines it is about the safety of all of the people who daily unknowingly still come in to contact with dangerous asbestos fibres because the very organisation that should be protecting them do not have the resources to enforce the law. How many more people will contract Asbestosis before somebody realises that they need to employ the help of companies in the Asbestos industry to help ensure that the workplace is as safe as possible?

Ken Jenkins
P402 Surveyor