BARNOLDSWICK-based Rolls Royce plc has been praised by the Health and Safety Executive for its work towards new guidelines to prevent people dying from asbestos-related diseases.

The Health and Safety Executive recently published important guidance to support the new duty to manage asbestos, requiring those with responsibilities for the repair and maintenance of non-domestic premises to find out if there are asbestos-containing materials within them.

It also requires companies to record the location and condition of such materials and assess and manage any risk from them.

The Barnoldswick-based company was highlighted in a report by the HSE as one of the companies fulfilling its legal and moral responsibilities in relation to this.

Ian Reed, group head of Health and Safety Management at Rolls Royce, said: "These new requirements have led us to review asbestos registers at our Barnoldswick site produced from local knowledge, and ongoing checks prior to planned work.

"We now have a systematic survey programme for next year to provide more complete records and help us introduce an asbestos management plan. While perhaps an unlooked-for cost it is clear that we will be able to prevent exposure and unplanned costs and delays in the future."

Asbestos has been identified as the largest occupational health killer in the second half of the 20th century, with an estimated 3,000 deaths a year in the UK and 1,872 in the North West since 1997.

It is estimated that during the last four years, 18,000 people have died in Great Britain because of asbestos compared to 14,000 killed in that time by road accidents.

Nick Brown, the Minister with responsibility for health and safety, said: "If current levels of exposure are allowed to continue over the next 50 years, nearly 5,000 people will die from asbestos related disease. These regulations should go a long way towards preventing this human suffering and misery."