Company fined £33,000 for asbestos breaches at MOD base

Date:

8 September 2010

Release No:

COISE/0809

A subsidiary of one of the world's largest support service and construction companies potentially exposed Ministry of Defence (MOD) workers to deadly asbestos fibres.

Interserve (Defence) Ltd, of Waterloo Road, London, appeared at Oxford Crown Court today (8 September 2010) following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). It was fined £33,000 and ordered to pay costs of £17,936.

An asbestos survey undertaken in the boiler room at an MOD base in Arncott, Bicester, in early 2005, found that the whole room was considered to be contaminated with asbestos and recommended that access to the room should be restricted until it was removed.

Interserve failed to follow the advice of the survey and consequently workers were left at risk of exposure to deadly asbestos fibres for over a year.

The company pleaded guilty at a previous hearing, on 11 June at Banbury Magistrates Court, to contravening regulations 4(8)(c), 6(1)(a) and 10(1)(a) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2002. The offences were committed at the Oxfordshire MOD site between 23 May 2005 and 30 September 2006.

HSE Inspector for Oxfordshire, Matthew Lee, said:

"Around 4,000 people die each year from past exposure to asbestos and the material may be present in any building built before the year 2000.

"It is therefore essential that duty holders and facilities managers are aware of the risk it still poses and their responsibilities in managing it.

"Facilities managers are key to ensuring that effective management systems are in place to protect workers and to ensure that duty holders meet their legal responsibilities."

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. For more information about the work of HSE, visit www.hse.gov.uk
2. Regulation 4 (8)(c) of Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 states: where an assessment shows that asbestos is or is liable to be present in any part of the premises the duty holder should ensure that measures which are to be taken for managing the risk are specified in a written plan.
3. Regulation 6 (1)(a) of Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 states: An employer shall not carry out work which is liable to expose his employees to asbestos unless he has made a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk created by that exposure to the health and safety of those persons and the steps that needed to be taken to meet the requirements of the said Regulations.
4. Regulation 10 (1) (a) of Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 states: Every employer shall prevent exposure of his employees to asbestos so far as is reasonably practicable.
5. For further information on the duty to manage, visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/managing/index.htm

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