Council and contractors fined for unsafe asbestos removal

Date:

3 June 2010

Release No:

HSE/EM026/10

A local authority and its contractor have been fined after a worker left a family exposed to dangerous asbestos fibres for three days.

City of Lincoln Council and County Waste (Lincs) Ltd were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after allowing asbestos insulation boards to be incorrectly removed.

Lincoln Magistrates' Court heard that in June 2008 the city council was refurbishing the bathroom of a property in Winn Street in the city and contracted County Waste (Lincs) Ltd to investigate the fixing of asbestos insulation boards, with a view to their removal. However, County Waste (Lincs) Ltd was not licensed to work with asbestos.

The employee carrying out the work lacked adequate information or training about the hazards from exposure to asbestos. The court was told he simply prised off the panels with a crowbar, breaking them in the process, before putting the pieces in a sack to transport to a yard for disposal.

Broken panels and pieces of asbestos debris were left on the bathroom floor of the property, and the worker walked around for the rest of the day in clothing that may have been contaminated with asbestos fibres.

After the tenant complained to the Council, employees visited the property to inspect the damage. However, they failed to tell the tenant there was a problem and did not move the family to another property for three days.

City of Lincoln Council was fined £10,000 and County Waste (Lincs) Ltd, of Exchange Road, Lincoln, was fined £4,250 and ordered to pay costs of £12,000 and £6,000 respectively after pleading guilty to a number of health and safety breaches.

HSE inspector Martin Giles said:

"The Council failed to ensure the contractor was competent to carry out the work and had no procedures in place to be followed in the event of serious and imminent danger to its employees. It failed to protect its tenants and ensure that they were not exposed to risks to their health following the release of asbestos fibres.

"Not informing the family about the seriousness of the problem and leaving them in the property for three days before rehousing them was an irresponsible and unacceptable act for a landlord.

"Because County Waste (Lincs) Ltd failed to provide adequate information, instruction and training to ensure employees liable to be exposed to asbestos were able to safeguard themselves and others, it did nothing to prevent the spread of asbestos from the bathroom and removed the material from the property without being in an appropriately sealed receptacle or wrapping.

"Asbestos is a hidden killer and the HSE has a wealth of information on its website to help employers manage the risks of working with the material. There is no excuse for ignorance when dealing with people's lives."

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. The City of Lincoln Council was fined as follows:
   • Fined £2,000 for breaching Regulation 8(1)(a) of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which states "Every employer shall establish and where necessary give effect to appropriate procedures to be followed in the event of serious and imminent danger to persons at work in his undertaking."
   • Fined £8,000 for breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, which states "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."
3. County Waste (Lincs) Ltd was fined as follows:
   • Fined £1,500 for breaching Regulation 10(1) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006, which states "Every employer shall ensure that adequate information, instruction and training is given to those of his employees who are or who are liable to be exposed to asbestos, or who supervise such employees in order to safeguard themselves and other employees."
   • Fined £1,000 for breaching Regulation 16 of the same regulations, which states: "Every employer shall prevent or, where this is not reasonably practicable, reduce to the lowest level reasonably practicable the spread of asbestos from any place where work under his control is carried out."
   • Fined £1,750 for breaching Regulation 24(1)(b) of the same regulations, which states: Every employer who undertakes work with asbestos shall ensure that waste which contains asbestos is not received into or despatched from any place of work unless it is in a sealed receptacle or sealed wrapping that is clearly marked."
4. A wide range of information and guidance about working with asbestos is available from the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/

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