§ Mr. WeirTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what action he has taken to strengthen the enforcement of regulations related to the handling of asbestos; and what future proposals he has in this area. [34809]
§ Dr. WhiteheadThrough its programme of inspection of licensed asbestos work, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has made it a priority to target specific categories of licensees and to inspect sites where the proposed method of work gives cause for concern.
Enforcement under the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 1987 (as amended) (CAWR) and the Asbestos (Licensing) Regulations 1983 (as amended) has continued to rise significantly.
A proposed amendment to CAWR, will place a duty on occupiers and anyone else who has maintenance and repair responsibilities to manage asbestos in workplace premises. The regulations are also being amended to include a proposal to require accreditation for the analysis of material to determine whether it contains asbestos.
The guidance in the existing CAWR Approved Code of Practice for work with asbestos is also being reviewed.
§ Mr. WeirTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many prosecutions have been brought, and by which agencies, for breach of asbestos-related regulations in each of the past 10 years. [34810]
§ Dr. WhiteheadThe Health and Safety Executive (HSE)'s prosecution statistics are based on the information laid by health and safety inspectors before the courts in England and Wales and on the charges preferred in Scottish courts. Each information laid or charge 233W preferred relates to a breach of an individual legal requirement and a duty holder may be prosecuted for more than one of these breaches.
The table sets out proceedings taken over the last five years by HSE under the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 1987 (as amended) and the Asbestos (Licensing) Regulations 1983 (as amended), the main regulations applying to asbestos activities. Access to older data is not readily available and would require restoration of archived databases. HSE does not record prosecutions taken by other agencies.
Year Informations laid Convictions 1996–97 42 34 1997–98 49 43 1998–99 46 43 1999–2000 151 49 2000–011 94 59 1 Data for 2000–01 is provisional and subject to change. Note:
Data from HSE's Field Operations Directorate (FOD), Hazardous Installations Directorate (HID), Land Divisions (exc mines, pipelines, explosives) and Nuclear Safety Divisions (NSD) (conventional safety only).