HSE Approach to Notified Asbestos Work that is Suspended

8th April 2020

The HSE has today issued the following statement with regards to asbestos licence holders suspending notified work with asbestos as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

Following feedback from industry, HSE have updated the approach to notifiable licensed asbestos work that is suspended due to restrictions on work caused by social distancing.

Once work to make the site safe has been completed, then the notification can be amended and the end date of the work changed to a date in 3 months time, the “Cessation of Work” box should be ticked, and a comment added in the notes field quoting “COVID-19 delay”.

When the new work dates are known then the notification should be amended to the correct dates and the cessation of work text box updated to say “COVID-19 resumed”.

Waiver requests for urgent or essential work are being dealt with in the usual way. Once the ASB5 has been submitted with the "Waiver Request" box ticked, this should be followed up by sending a copy of the ASB5, a plan of work, and a letter from the client explaining why the work must be carried out, to the relevant email address as listed in the guidance on waiver requests on the web communities forum. The link is here