A GUERNSEY-BASED asbestos surveying company has been fined £18,000 and ordered to pay more than £21,000 in damages for failing to identify asbestos insulation in two UK schools.

The Normandie Analytical Services Ltd survey failed to identify asbestos boarding, which in itself poses no health risk if it remains intact, but after construction workers disturbed it they were placed at risk.

Health and Safety Executive inspector Steve Lewis said:  ‘This case demonstrates a repeated failure by this company to carry out systematic and comprehensive checks for asbestos,’ he said.

Asbestos is present in many public buildings across the country, he added, and poses no threat when it remains in a sealed or undisturbed state.

‘But in this case the company clearly did not have appropriate quality control checks in place, which resulted in the material being disturbed,’ the HSE said.