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News Release from: Howden Insurance Brokers | Subject: Surveying for asbestos
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 30 September 2005
Asbestos is not a dirty word
HSE estimates that it could cost GBP1.4 billion to survey the 800,000 or so buildings in the UK which need surveying for asbestos.
NIACS training combined with PI insurance from Howden can open up a world of opportunity The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations introduced in 2002, and more recently Regulation 4 which kicked into force last May, could represent a goldmine for construction professionals as every duty holder of commercial premises is required to assess whether asbestos is present, and if it is, to prepare a plan for managing the associated risks The HSE estimates that it could cost GBP1.4 billion to survey the 800,000 or so buildings in the UK which need surveying for asbestos
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 13 Jun 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Annual recurring costs could be as much as GBP13 million, so there's the potential for big business.
Clearly this work is of a specialist nature and duty holders will have to employ the services of specialists to carry out the assessment.
The catch is that there is a desperate shortage of qualified inspectors to carry out survey work.
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The RICS predicts between 3,000 and 4,000 newly qualified and insured inspectors will be needed to produce asbestos management plans for the hundreds of thousands of commercial premises, which now require them.
And that's not all.
Panicked by the wave of asbestos-related lawsuits and huge settlements in the US, finding insurers willing to carry the risk for asbestos work in the UK is nigh on impossible.
Recognising both the shortage of qualified inspectors and the need to guarantee their competency to try and secure insurance cover, the RICS and the Asbestos Removal Contractors Association (ARCA) have joined forces to found the newly launched National Individual Asbestos Certification Scheme (NIACS), which has the full backing of the HSE.
Thanks to NIACS, any construction professional - whether they be a surveyor, architect, or engineer - who has the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health (RSPH) Level 3 Certificate in Asbestos Inspection Procedures, can apply to take part in the new NIACS course to become a certified asbestos inspector and receive specific training to achieve the required degree of expertise, stringent enough to have earned UKAS accreditation.
And in becoming a NIACS certified inspector, construction professionals can also access professional indemnity (PI) insurance that provides cover for asbestos related work.
According to Kevin Culliney, Executive Director of Howden UK, the specialist broker appointed by RICS to source PI cover to support NIACS certified inspectors: "No amount of training can avoid mistakes ever being made.
To fully protect inspectors, a suitable and sufficient level of professional indemnity to cover all elements of the asbestos work being carried out is necessary - easier said than done given the fact that few UK insurers are willing to carry asbestos-related risk and most PI policies now exclude claims linked to asbestos, or provide very limited cover.
"Our insurance cover is the only tailored product available in the market that dovetails dovetails with any existing PI cover and is specific and exclusive to members of NIACS.
The panel of insurers involved are satisfied that membership of NIACS demonstrates professional competency and allows them to offer a broad insurance cover at a reasonable insurance premium." Howden UK has put in place two insurance products, one for individual inspectors and one for firms of inspectors.
Mark Southwell from RICS expects a great demand for NIACS certification from inspector hopefuls: "We've currently got the capacity to train 750 each year and so, based on full capacity, 3750 will be successfully NIACS certified by 2010.
There's huge potential in asbestos related work for properly qualified and insured inspectors; Regulation 4 currently covers commercial properties, and it's likely that the rental sector will follow suit in the very near future".
Professionals interested in applying for NIACS certification, or for further information, should visit www.niacs.org.uk .
For more information about professional indemnity cover from Howden, please contact Matthew Reed on 020 7623 3806 or email mreed@howdenuk.com.
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