Asbestos management is the ongoing process of identifying, recording, assessing and controlling asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) within a building so that they do not present a health risk. In higher-risk buildings (HRBs), this process sits alongside the wider building safety duties introduced by the Building Safety Act 2022, although the two are governed by separate legislation.
Many HRBs were constructed before the use of asbestos was banned in the United Kingdom in 1999. As a result, ACMs may remain present in their structure, services and common areas. Understanding how asbestos should be managed, and how that management relates to wider building safety responsibilities, is relevant to the surveyors, contractors, facilities managers and building owners responsible for these buildings.
What are higher-risk buildings?
A higher-risk building is a category defined by the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023. For the in-occupation phase of the regime, a building is higher-risk if it:
- Is at least 18 metres in height, or has at least 7 storeys; and
- Contains at least two residential units.
Only one of the height or storey thresholds needs to be met. Buildings used entirely as hospitals, care homes, secure residential institutions, hotels or military barracks are excluded from the in-occupation requirements, although hospitals and care homes are included during design and construction.
The classification applies more stringent oversight where the consequences of fire spread or structural failure could be most severe. It is administered by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), which forms part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Why asbestos remains a consideration in higher-risk buildings
The building safety risks addressed directly by the Building Safety Act are the spread of fire and structural failure. Asbestos is not one of these defined risks and is regulated separately. It remains relevant to HRBs for several practical reasons:
- Much of the existing high-rise residential stock dates from a period when asbestos was widely used in construction
- ACMs may be present in common areas such as risers, plant rooms, lift shafts, ducts and service voids
- Improvement and remediation works carried out under the building safety regime, such as recladding, compartmentation works or fire-door replacement, can disturb materials that contain asbestos
- Routine maintenance and refurbishment in occupied buildings creates an ongoing potential for accidental disturbance
The legal framework
Asbestos in non-domestic premises is governed principally by the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR 2012), made under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Regulation 4 of CAR 2012 sets out the duty to manage asbestos.
Individual dwellings are domestic premises and fall outside Regulation 4. However, the common parts of residential buildings are treated as non-domestic. In an HRB, this means that areas such as staircases, corridors, lift shafts, plant rooms and roof spaces are subject to the duty to manage, even though the flats themselves are not.
The detailed expectations for compliance are set out in the HSE Approved Code of Practice and guidance L143, Managing and working with asbestos, with survey methodology described in HSG264, Asbestos (The survey guide). An Approved Code of Practice does not itself impose duties, but a duty holder who does not follow it may need to demonstrate that compliance was achieved by other means.
The Building Safety Act 2022 does not regulate asbestos, but its requirements for HRBs, including the duty to maintain accurate building information, intersect with asbestos management in practice.
Duty holder responsibilities
Under Regulation 4, the duty holder is the person or organisation responsible for the maintenance or repair of the non-domestic premises, whether through a contract or tenancy or, in the absence of such an agreement, through control of the premises. In a residential block, this is often the building owner, landlord or managing agent responsible for the common parts.
The duty may be shared between several parties, and the regulations require co-operation so that information can be exchanged. Day-to-day work can be delegated, but the legal duty itself remains with the duty holder.
In an HRB, the CAR 2012 duty holder may be the same body as the accountable person responsible for building safety under the Building Safety Act, or a different one. Where these roles sit with different organisations, coordination is needed to avoid gaps.
Managing asbestos in practice
The duty to manage is not a duty to remove. Asbestos in good condition and unlikely to be disturbed is often safer left in place and managed than removed. Typical management activities include:
- commissioning an asbestos survey by a competent surveyor to establish the presence, location, type and condition of ACMs
- recording findings in an asbestos register, presuming that materials contain asbestos where this cannot be ruled out
- carrying out a risk assessment and preparing a written asbestos management plan
- monitoring the condition of ACMs and reviewing the assessment when circumstances change
- providing information on the location of ACMs to anyone liable to disturb them, including maintenance staff and contractors
- arranging a refurbishment and demolition survey before intrusive work, and ensuring that an HSE-licensed contractor carries out licensable removal work
Common challenges
Several factors can make asbestos management more difficult in HRBs:
- ageing building stock where original construction records are incomplete or unavailable
- materials concealed within the structure that are only revealed during intrusive works
- The need to work in occupied buildings with continuous public access
- complex ownership and management arrangements that involve multiple duty holders
- coordinating asbestos management with concurrent building safety remediation programmes
Good practice considerations
Recognised good practice for managing asbestos in HRBs includes:
- Keeping the asbestos register and management plan current, and reviewing them regularly
- Appointing competent, suitably accredited surveyors and analysts
- Maintaining clear records of surveys, inspections and remedial works
- Communicating asbestos information to residents, staff and contractors as appropriate
- Incorporating asbestos information into the building’s wider information management arrangements, including the golden thread of information maintained for HRBs
Treating asbestos management as part of the overall approach to building safety, rather than as a separate exercise, reduces the risk of accidental disturbance over the building’s lifetime.
