Undertaking Water Risk Assessments for Legionella on NNR Buildings

Natural England manages their NNR buildings estate in-house without the benefit of a facilities management company such as Interserve. On occasions we need to buy in expertise to ensure we keep our buildings compliant with various aspects of legislation. In the past we have bought in services to carry out Fire Risk Assessments and Asbestos Management Surveys.

At the end of the last F/Y we commissioned Mott MacDonald working with Hydrop to carry out Water Risk Assessments on a sample of our NNR buildings.

We have an additional 31 buildings, spread across 22 workbases for which we have no relevant information. We are therefore not compliant with The Control of Legionella bacteria in water systems - Approved Code of Practice & Guidance on Regulations:2013.

Water Risk Assessments and Reviews for the sites named - A suitable and sufficient assessment in accordance with the HSE's Approved Code of Practice L8 is required to identify and assess the risk of exposure to legionella bacteria from work activities and water systems on the premises and any necessary precautionary measures. The assessment will include identification and evaluation of potential sources of risk and:

- the particular means by which exposure to legionella bacteria is to be prevented; or

- if prevention is not reasonably practicable, the particular means by which the risk from exposure to legionella bacteria is to be controlled.

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