You will not, of course, be able to take informed steps to manage any ACMs in buildings for which you are responsible, until you know what ACMs are present in the property, as well as vital associated details, such as the materials’ location, amount, and condition.
Sure enough, on the aforementioned flow chart in the HSG227 document, the first step is to “confirm what you already know about the ACMs on your premises, and review how you are currently managing them”.
Your first step in this process should be to consider whether there are likely to be ACMs on your premises. You might have records showing that an asbestos survey was previously carried out, as well as that certain ACMs were removed from the property in the past. In some cases – for example, if the building for which you are responsible was constructed after the year 2000 – the premises might have never contained asbestos.
If you need to undertake a fresh asbestos survey at your property to determine the status of ACMs in the building, Appendix 1 of HSG227 – on the planning of surveys – will provide you with useful details on how to accomplish this. It sets out information on what type(s) of survey to carry out, as well as information gathering, and how to decide on the appropriate reporting format and medium.
Appendix 2 of the publication then explores the survey report, material assessment, and algorithm. The final survey report should set out various descriptors for the confirmed or suspected ACMs that are discovered through the surveying process, including where they are located, their extent, the product type, the level of identification (presumed, strongly presumed, or identified), accessibility/vulnerability, and the amount of damage or deterioration.
HSG227 states that if an inspection or survey has been carried out for a particular property, it will be necessary to risk assess each of the ACMs, or presumed ACMs, identified. These risk assessments will enable the dutyholder to decide on what action to take in relation to given ACMs, and to determine what needs to be tackled first.
The risk assessments are carried out in two stages. Those are the material assessment (Appendix 2), which assesses the condition of the material and the likelihood of the material being disturbed or releasing fibres, and the priority assessment (Appendix 3). The second of those stages takes into account such factors as maintenance activities, the likelihood of disturbance, human exposure potential, and the activities of occupants or visitors to the building.