HSE launches campaign highlighting legal responsibilities for asbestos management

Workplaces, schools and hospitals are the focus of a new campaign to keep people safe from asbestos.

Asbestos: Your Duty aims to improve understanding of what the legal duty to manage asbestos involves.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is urging those with responsibilities for buildings to do everything they must do to comply with the law and prevent exposure to the substance, which was widely used in post-war construction before being completely banned in 1999. 

The legal duty to manage asbestos covers a wide range of buildings such as museums, schools, hospitals, and places of worship, as well as workplaces like offices and factories.

Businesses and organisations responsible for premises built before the turn of the century, and especially those between 1950 and 1980 when the use of asbestos in construction was at its peak, must carry out the necessary checks and understand their legal responsibilities. 

Updated information, new templates, and explanatory videos can be found on HSE's website to help anyone who is unsure of their legal duties on what they need to do.

Sarah Albon, HSE's Chief Executive said: "To keep people safe from the harms of asbestos, a culture of safely managing asbestos is needed in our building industry and among those responsible for buildings. 

“Asbestos exposure in Great Britain is still the single greatest cause of work-related deaths due to exposures decades ago. Together, we must protect people in the workplace and reduce future work-related ill health.”