The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned property owners to ensure that they keep accurate records of asbestos in their buildings and pass any information on to contractors. The warning follows a serious incident in which contracted workers as well as members of the public were exposed to airborne asbestos fibres as a result of refurbishment work in council properties in the Fife area during 2007.

In court, Fife Council was fined £10,000 after pleading guilty to a charge under section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The contractor was fined £3,700 after pleading guilty to charges under sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. 

Fife Council contracted a building maintenance to replace water storage tanks within the communal loft areas of properties and adjoining areas. Some of these tanks were insulated with asbestos. The contractor was not licensed by the HSE to remove asbestos nor were they competent to do the work. Their workers had not been adequately trained so did not recognise the presence of asbestos, or the risks posed by it. They also failed to implement established control measures to minimise the exposure to themselves as well as to other people in the vicinity.

HSE inspector Alastair Brown commented after the case: "Fife Council failed to keep an understandable register of asbestos and failed to ensure that a full survey for asbestos was carried out prior to any work starting, so the information available was not sufficient to alert persons to the immediate danger from the asbestos prior to the work beginning. "In view of the Council’s previous experience of managing asbestos, this was a very disappointing incident. The effects of exposure to asbestos fibres can take as long as 20 to 30 years to manifest themselves, and over 4,000 people are dying every year in Great Britain due to the unrecognised exposure to asbestos earlier in their working lives. Legislation came into force in May 2004 which requires the organisation in control of any non domestic premises, or the common parts on domestic premises, to identify and assess asbestos in those premises. "The Council failed to identify that asbestos was present in the area where work was to take place, and the contractor then failed to recognise it, resulting in the asbestos becoming airborne as it was disturbed and spread into public areas of the buildings."