Asbestos remains the UK’s number-one workplace killer and increasing evidence of its mismanagement by dutyholders has led to calls for an overhaul of existing systems and approaches to detection, reporting and risk assessment. Stephen Cousins reports.

A construction site supervisor has been fined after he exposed primary school pupils and staff to asbestos during renovation work.

A company director has been jailed for eight months after failing to protect workers from asbestos exposure at a development project in Winchester.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will perform checks on how asbestos is managed in buildings to ensure that the right arrangements are in place.

Managers of buildings including schools, hospitals and social housing should urgently review their management plans amid fears that asbestos left in buildings as “safe” could now be in a damaged state.

More than 100,000 UK buildings still need “extensive asbestos remediation”, according to asbestos organisations.

More than two decades after it was banned, asbestos remains an active threat to those working in construction, explains Colette Willoughby.

Excavation work exposed staff at one of logistics company Eddie Stobart’s sites to asbestos.

As Mesothelioma Awareness Day approaches on 26 September, Amanda Stubbs provides an update on the legal framework to safeguard workers from the risks of asbestos-related ill health.