Asbestos


The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (the 2012 Regulations) became law on 6 April 2012, replacing the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006. Although the 2012 Regulations were very similar to the 2006 Regulations, they contained some minor changes relating to certain exemptions for so-called “low risk” work. The European Commission decided that the UK had failed to fully implement the Asbestos Worker Protection Directive through the 2006 Regulations, concluding that certain exemptions in the UK regulations for “sporadic and low intensity work” were wider than the Directive had intended. The 2012 Regulations aimed to address this by narrowing the kinds of work covered by the exemptions.


Under the old regime, there were two categories of work — licensed and non-licensed. “Non-licensed” work was exempt from certain requirements, including the requirement to notify the enforcing authority responsible for the site. Under the 2012 Regulations, a third category of work has been introduced, known as “notifiable non-licensed work”.


As a result of the change, some employers who carry out some kinds of low intensity, short duration work are no longer exempt from the need to:


• notify work to the relevant enforcing authority;


• carry out health assessments (from April 2015); and


• keep a register of those workers exposed (or who could be exposed) to asbestos.