Firm fined for failing to manage asbestos on site

Date:

17 February 2011

Release No:

HSE/EM/145/11

A demolition firm has been fined after failing to manage and monitor asbestos removal work at a site in Nottinghamshire.

Yorkshire-based Libra Demolition Ltd was the principal contractor on a project to demolish buildings at the former Vesuvius works in Sandy Lane, Worksop, Nottinghamshire between 25 March and 22 August 2008.

A number of buildings on the site contained notifiable asbestos, the removal of which should be declared to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and carried out by a licensed asbestos contractor.

During a joint HSE and Environment Agency (EA) prosecution, Worksop Magistrates' Court heard the buildings were demolished but no records of the safe removal or disposal of the asbestos were found and HSE received no notifications for its removal.

The discovery came to light when debris from the Vesuvius site was found at an unlicensed waste disposal site on Leverton Road, Retford, by the EA.

Libra Demolition Limited, of Network House, West 26 Industrial Estate, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. The company was fined £1,500 and ordered to pay total costs of £10,000. Further charges were brought by the EA.

HSE inspector Kevin Wilson said:

"Libra Demolition was the principal contractor for the demolition project and had control of the site. It is completely unacceptable for any firm to disregard its responsibilities in this way.

"The firm neglected to manage and monitor the project so as to ensure the notifiable asbestos was removed safely under licensed conditions by a licensed contractor, and therefore failed in its legal obligations.

"The dangers of asbestos are well known and contractors should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take enforcement action against any firm that ignores the law in this way."

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. Media requiring information about the Environment Agency's involvement in this prosecution should contact its press office on 0121 711 5983.
3. Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 states: "The principal contractor for a project shall plan, manage and monitor the construction phase in a way which ensures that, so far as is reasonably practicable, it is carried out without risks to health or safety, including facilitating (i)co-operation and co-ordination between persons concerned in the project in pursuance of regulations 5 and 6, and (ii)the application of the general principles of prevention in pursuance of regulation 7."
4. Information about managing and working with asbestos is available on the HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos

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