New Asbestos Regulations Come into Force

The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 [1] will come into force on 6 April 2012, updating previous asbestos regulations to take account of the European Commission’s view that the UK had not fully implemented the EU Directive on exposure to asbestos (Directive 2009/148/EC).



In practice, the changes are fairly limited and mean that some types of non-licensed work with asbestos now have additional requirements, i.e. notification of work, medical surveillance and record keeping. All other requirements remain unchanged, e.g. relating to licensed work with asbestos, duty to manage, risk assessment, the asbestos control limit, control measures and training requirements.


Further information will be available from 6 April on HSE’s Asbestos website -


http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/index.htm