Asbestos policy
At Magna, we are totally committed to ensuring the safety of our customers, colleagues and others who work with us. Our approach to managing the risk of asbestos safety is central to this commitment.
The purpose of this policy is to set out the principles that shape our asbestos safety standards and procedures, ensuring that we meet, as a minimum, all legal and regulatory requirements in the way we design, construct, manage, service and maintain our homes.
Scope of this Policy
This policy applies to:
• All homes, estates, communal buildings and offices owned and managed by Magna Housing;
• All colleagues and those employed by Magna in the design, construction, management and maintenance of our homes;
• All managing agents or lessees who manage or maintain homes and estates on our behalf.
The policy specifically covers:
• Arrangements to ensure effective controls are in place for the safe management of asbestos and asbestos containing materials in our offices and housing stock and the risk of personal injury to colleagues, contractors and customers from the damage or accidental release of asbestos fibres is minimised.
Policy Statement
The safety of our customers, colleagues and contractors is at the heart of what we do at Magna. We are committed to ensuring that our arrangements to deliver the comprehensive range of asbestos
safety management activities described in the scope consistently
meet legal and regulatory requirements and achieve our Regulator’s Consumer Standard, as an absolute minimum. Where appropriate we will strive to achieve what is considered to be industry best practice.
In delivering this policy objective we are committed to ensuring that all those involved in managing asbestos safety at Magna demonstrate the appropriate competency levels and, where necessary, third-party accreditation.
Magna will comply with The Construction (Design and Management) Regulation 2015, where the client has the duty to pass on information about the state or condition of any premises, including the presence of any hazardous materials, to the principal designer and the principal contractor before any work starts.
We are committed to building in a “golden thread” of quality from an asbestos safety perspective through the early stages of design, through the construction phase into management and maintenance of our homes.
We will consult with customers on asbestos safety related activities, inform them about the outcome of assessments, ensure awareness, provide advice and listen and respond to any safety related concerns.
The safety of our customers is paramount. We will ensure that resources and funding required to deliver asbestos safety related works are prioritised, taking into account a risk-based approach to the urgency of the work.
As a core safety service, we will ensure that performance on asbestos safety activity is regularly scrutinised to ensure continuous improvement and to ensure that any lessons are embedded.
Our Asbestos Safety Standard and Procedure
We want to make sure that we are clear about the standards we are working to when it comes to asbestos management. We have developed an Asbestos Safety Standard, which defines what we will do to promote asbestos safety. The standard explains who is responsible for delivering the service and details how frequently we expect to carry out specific activities in customers’ homes, in common areas and on estates.
The standard is supported by a clear procedure and instructions to ensure that the services are delivered consistently by our internal teams and by specialist contractors. The standard and procedure are kept under constant review to ensure they are fit for purpose in a fast-changing environment.
Responsibilities for Asbestos Safety Management
The Director of Customer Operations is the accountable person in relation to all aspects of asbestos management at Magna and is responsible for the development and review of the Asbestos Policy and Asbestos Safety Standard, ensuring that these meet all regulatory requirements and guidance.
The Head of Building Safety and Compliance is responsible for operational delivery of asbestos management activities, for maintaining accurate asbestos related property data and is responsible for reporting on asbestos management in line with governance arrangements. The Head Building Safety and Compliance is responsible for ensuring that customers are effectively consulted on all aspects of asbestos in their homes and estates.
All colleagues have a responsibility for ensuring that the work they undertake in delivering our policies and standards is fit for purpose.
Governance, Performance Management and Review
This policy, its associated standard and operational procedure will be monitored and reviewed by the Director of Customer Operations annually. The policy will be considered and approved annually by Board.
A range of performance measures and indicators, relating directly to the Asbestos Safety Standard, are reported to managers and directors as appropriate. High level performance indicators are reported to Board on a regular basis in line with their approved balanced scorecard.
Our performance on asbestos safety, including lessons learned from incidents will form part of the quarterly report to the Health and Safety Forum and will be included in the annual report to Board on corporate health and safety.