All contractors now labour, reluctantly it has to be added, under a mound of paperwork designed to ensure that they are competent and adequately resourced for safety.  We hear many grumbles about the level of checks required but every now and then a case gives rise to a good reason for all of this to be in place.

In this case a company called Gardner Mechanical Services Ltd had been contracted to undertake some alterations at Reading University. GMS then sub-contracted the mechanical services project to another company, which in turn sub-contracted the work to two self-employed workers. On September 2 2009 the two men drilled through a sprayed asbestos coating which was applied to a ceiling exposing themselves to significant levels of asbestos fibres and putting themselves at risk of later contracting a fatal disease such as lung cancer or mesothelioma.

On inspection, HSE found that the two workers had not been made aware of the presence of asbestos. GMS had been made waware that there were asbestos-containing materials present in the building but did not pass on the information to the sub-contractors in a reliable way.

GMS pleaded guilty to breaching the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 by allowing the workers to be exposed to the fibres. It also pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 23(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM) as there was no suitable construction phase plan to ensure that the work could be carried out without risk. The firm was fined £28,000 and ordered to pay £22,631 in costs.

Affect on the client

The University was found to have handed over sufficient information to enable the work to be done safely. However, as principal contractor GMS had a key responsibility which it plainly failed to discharge. A project of this scale is classed as “notifiable” under the CDM Regulations 2007 and required a Construction Phase Safety Plan and CDM Coordinator to be in place.  Because of this the location of asbestos-containing materials should have been clearly written in the  plan. To comply with CDM this plan would have to have been in place before the first day of work on site and made available to any sub-contractors.