HSG 264 - What does this mean to me?

It's perhaps not too much of a surprise that the management of asbestos will evolve and change with time. In January this year the HSE presented HSG 264 as the latest evolutionary step in the safe management of asbestos. 'HSG 264 - Asbestos: the survey guide' directly supersedes MDHS 100 and is the new standard that all UKAS accredited asbestos inspection bodies will soon be working to.

As professional surveyors and analysts 'HSG 264' represents some significant changes to how we work, but leaves our clients asking 'what does this mean to me?' Below we've highlighted some of the most significant impacts of HSG 264 on the way First Order Red delivers our services and how this will impact on our clients.

The Need for Quality Management: All asbestos surveyors and analysts must run an acceptable quality management system with the only independently recognised standard in the UK being UKAS accreditation.

Changes to the language of asbestos surveys: Gone are Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3 surveys and in come 'Management' (replacing Type 2) and 'Refurbishment or Demolition' (replacing Type 3) surveys.

Improved Survey Planning: A greater emphasis on pre-survey planning requires consultant and client to work together to clearly identify the scope of all projects (now termed 'contract review'), to plan accordingly and to agree 'what' the survey teams should or should not do (i.e. agreeing where we can access, what level of intrusive inspection is acceptable, and understanding what these limitations mean to the final survey).

'Fully Intrusive Surveys': All refurbishment and demolition surveys are now required to be 'fully intrusive' unless otherwise agreed with the client during survey planning. Surveyors are required to access all areas of a buildings structure with the aim of identifying all Asbestos Containing Materials. This may result in increased remediation/repair costs after a survey or, more likely, agreeing acceptable levels of intrusive surveying during survey planning.

Revisiting 'Locked' Rooms: When delivering surveys all reasonable attempts must be made to access 'locked' or 'inaccessible' rooms. Locked doors may result in revisits by the surveyor which could lead to increased costs for the client.

These are just a few of the changes that HSG 264 brings that will impact on our clients. To discuss the impact of HSG 264 on the management of asbestos in your properties in more detail please feel free to contact First Order Red at any time on 0845 8800350.

HSG 264 - What does this mean to me?

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