NHS Trust in court over asbestos find

NHS Trust in court over asbestos find

Key Facts:

• Asbestos is the biggest single cause of work-related deaths in the UK
• Asbestos fibres were found in several areas of an NHS Trust basement
• Recommendations following an earlier asbestos survey were not acted upon
• The Trust were fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £696 in costs

The case:

Workers at a Liverpool NHS Trust may have been exposed to potentially fatal asbestos fibres. Fibres were discovered in the basement of its offices on London Road in January 2013, and the Trust was subsequently prosecuted by the HSE.

The asbestos find resulted in an HSE investigation which found that staff were regularly visiting the basement, which contained patient records. A 2006 survey had identified an area of the basement that may contain asbestos, but recommendations that its condition should be properly assessed were not acted upon.

The health and safety failings were brought to light in January 2013 when the Trust’s health and safety manager noticed damage to an out-of-use goods lift. The lift doors contained asbestos which therefore posed a risk of exposure to workers accessing the basement. As a result of this, a further survey was carried out which found asbestos fibres to be present in several other basement areas.

After a hearing in Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on 26 February 2015, the NHS Trust was fined £10,000 and £696 in prosecution costs. The Trust pled guilty to two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 as a result of this asbestos find.

What the HSE Inspector had to say:

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Imran Siddiqui stated that:

“Around 4,000 people die every year as a result of breathing in asbestos fibres, making it the biggest single cause of work-related deaths in the UK.

It’s therefore vital that organisations take the risks from asbestos seriously. The Trust, in line with the 2006 survey, should have assumed asbestos was present in an area of the basement and taken appropriate action to make it safe for people working there.

Instead, workers were allowed to regularly visit the basement to access patient files increasing the risk of exposure to the potentially-deadly fibres.”

What the law states:

Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states:

“It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.”

Section 3(1) states:

“It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.”
Information on how to work safely with asbestos is available at www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos.

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