Another social housing provider has been revealed to have made serious errors in relation to health and safety.

A review by the provider One Housing has followed a Housing Ombudsman investigation which unearthed over 800 entries of incorrect asbestos risk data. 

Asbestos was historically often used as a building material for insulation for buildings, boilers and pipes, roofing and flooring tiles and therefore can be found in many homes and buildings. Reports have found up to 1.5 million UK homes may still have asbestos, especially those built before the late 1980s. 

If intact in a property, the risk is small. However, if asbestos is disturbed or damaged in some way, fibres may be released which can have several adverse health effects.  

The Ombudsman made a series of orders to the social landlord following a severe Maladministration finding.

The finding was in respect to an investigation into its record keeping for repairs and the presence of asbestos in a resident’s home.  

The complaint followed a leak and collapsed ceiling in the resident and her child’s home. Repairs took 14 months and the social landlord did not have accurate and up-to-date records about the presence of asbestos in the property. 

The landlord did not assess the condition of the asbestos and could not evidence that it considered temporarily moving the family.  

The landlord’s review in response to the Ombudsman found over 800 records of incorrect data on its asbestos register. The risk scoring system showed several properties as no-risk where it had no data, when in fact there could be asbestos present. 

It also showed that some properties had been marked as high-risk on the register, where old data had not been removed.  

The review found the inconsistencies in its data had been caused by multiple factors, including external services being brought in-house and its knowledge and information management. 

This included new information being added without existing records being updated when moving to a new system. 

A statement from the Housing Ombudsman claims the landlord has now made improvements to its asbestos record keeping and services, including a review of its asbestos safety management plan. 

It has also produced an operational guidance document and recruited two administrative posts to maintain its asbestos databases and cleansing of records.