FOR ACTION
HSE’s Asbestos Unit (AU) found that several Licensed Asbestos Removal Contractors (LARCs) had been backdating or continuously amending the finish date on their ASB5 notifications days or weeks subsequently.
The concerns linked to this practice are:
- additional licensable work may have been included within extended notifications
- extended jobs may have not been picked up for inspection, if inspectors had been guided by the original finish date and been unaware that jobs were still ongoing
To stop this practice, it is no longer possible for a LARC to change the finish date of a job later than 7:00am on the day after the finish date on the notification.
However the cut off for changes, for the notification to remain valid, is no later than the finish date (midnight). LARCs should not aim for 7:00am.
Early experience
Once AU identified the practice of late amendments of the finish date, AU advised LARCs to stop the work and make the site secure, as there was no longer a valid notification. They should then renotify (with a new notification), updating the plan of works, and wait out the 14-day notification period.
Alternatively LARCs they could apply for a waiver, forwarding the PoW, client letter and ASB5 to HSE’s centralised waivers team.
However, a higher number of LARCs have been contacting HSE than we expected (the situation was possibly more widespread than we first thought) and there are potential consequences of live enclosures waiting 2 weeks to be cleared or work completed.
Updated approach
We have sent out an email to the major asbestos Trade Associations advising LARCs to make changes to a notification before the original expected finish date elapses. We will be sending a similar message to all LARCs directly.
We have advised LARCs that we expect high standards of planning and organisation of work and that changes to the dates should be notified without delay and within the notification period. We have also advised that modifications after the finish date are no longer possible.
We have explained that LARCs needing to amend the date after the expected finish date has elapsed will need to contact AU for HSE-enforced jobs and to explain why.
Local Authority (LA) actions
LA inspectors should consider if they can allow a minor amendment (a few extra days), or whether the LARC needs to notify the additional work as a new notification (for example, if the remaining work is substantial).
The LARC should be sent an email confirming the inspector’s decision. LARCs can annotate a hard copy of the existing ASB5.
For new notifications, requests to waiver the 14-day notification period should be considered in line with ALG Memo 06/12 (paragraphs 9 to 15), which can be downloaded from the CONIAC website.
HSE AU would appreciate it if LA inspectors could send a brief summary of any requests to extend or waiver, as a consequence of the LARC not amending the finish date before the finish date to AU at Asbestos-Unit@hse.gov.uk.
These will help inform any subsequent licence renewal considerations.
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