What Every Employer Needs to Know About Asbestos at Work Regulations
Asbestos remains the single largest cause of work-related deaths in Great Britain. If you manage, own, or maintain a non-domestic building, the asbestos at work regulations place clear legal duties on your shoulders — and ignorance carries no weight when the Health and Safety Executive comes calling.
Whether you oversee a school, an office block, a warehouse, or an industrial unit, the rules apply to you. This post sets out exactly what those duties are, how to meet them in practice, and what happens when employers fall short.
The Legal Framework Behind the Asbestos at Work Regulations
The Control of Asbestos Regulations is the primary legislation governing asbestos management across the UK. It consolidates earlier rules into a single framework and places a duty to manage asbestos on anyone responsible for non-domestic premises — this is commonly referred to as the “dutyholder” role.
The regulations operate alongside the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act and are supported by the HSE guidance document HSG264, which provides the technical detail that surveyors and dutyholders rely on in practice. Together, they create a clear chain of responsibility from building owner through to the contractor on the tools.
Key obligations under the regulations include:
- Identifying whether asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) are present in your premises
- Assessing the condition and risk of any ACMs found
- Producing and maintaining an asbestos register
- Creating a written asbestos management plan
- Ensuring anyone who might disturb ACMs is informed of their location
- Arranging for licensed contractors to carry out higher-risk work
- Providing appropriate training to employees and contractors
- Monitoring, reviewing, and updating records regularly
These are not optional best practices. They are legal requirements, and failing to meet them can result in prosecution, unlimited fines, and — in serious cases — imprisonment.
Who Is a Dutyholder?
The dutyholder is anyone who has responsibility for the maintenance or repair of non-domestic premises through a contract or tenancy agreement. Where no such agreement exists, the duty falls on the building owner.
In practice, this means facilities managers, landlords, employers, and managing agents all need to understand where they sit in the chain. If you are a tenant with maintenance responsibilities under your lease, the duty is likely yours. If you are a freeholder with no tenants, it is definitely yours.
Shared Buildings and Multiple Parties
Shared buildings add complexity. Where multiple parties share responsibility, they must cooperate to ensure the duty is met. The regulations are clear that responsibility cannot simply be passed on without proper agreement and documentation in place.
What About Domestic Properties?
The duty to manage under the Control of Asbestos Regulations does not apply to purely domestic premises. However, landlords of residential properties still carry duties under health and safety law, and anyone carrying out work in a domestic property — whether a tradesperson or contractor — must comply with the regulations when working with potential ACMs.
Conducting a Suitable Asbestos Risk Assessment
Before any work takes place that could disturb building materials, you must carry out a suitable and sufficient asbestos risk assessment. This is not a tick-box exercise — it needs to reflect the actual conditions in your building and the tasks being planned.
A proper risk assessment considers:
- Whether ACMs are present, based on survey findings or reasonable assumption
- The type, condition, and location of any ACMs
- The likelihood that planned work activities will disturb them
- Who might be exposed and for how long
- What control measures are needed to keep exposure below legal limits
Where no survey has been carried out and records are absent or out of date, you must either commission a survey or assume that suspect materials contain asbestos and manage them accordingly. Assumption is a legitimate and often sensible approach for lower-risk situations, but it must be documented.
Review your risk assessment at least every 12 months, and immediately after any incident, near miss, or significant change to the building. A static document gathering dust in a filing cabinet is not compliance.
The Role of the Asbestos Survey
Understanding which survey you need is fundamental to meeting your obligations under the asbestos at work regulations. There are two main types, each serving a distinct purpose.
Management Survey
A management survey is used to locate and assess ACMs that could be disturbed during normal occupation and routine maintenance. It is the standard survey for buildings in everyday use and forms the foundation of your asbestos register.
This type of survey is minimally intrusive and designed to be carried out while a building remains occupied. It gives you the baseline information you need to manage ACMs safely over time.
Refurbishment and Demolition Surveys
A refurbishment survey is required before any intrusive maintenance or refurbishment work begins. It is more invasive than a management survey and is designed to locate all ACMs in the areas affected by planned work.
Where a building is being demolished entirely, a demolition survey is required. This is the most thorough type of survey, involving destructive inspection to locate every ACM before work starts — no exceptions.
HSG264 provides detailed guidance on when each type is required. Both surveys must be carried out by a competent surveyor, and samples taken are analysed in a UKAS-accredited laboratory. The results form the basis of your asbestos register.
Maintaining the Asbestos Register and Management Plan
Once ACMs have been identified, they must be recorded in an asbestos register. This document lists every ACM found, its location, type, condition, and the risk it presents. It is a live document — not something you produce once and file away.
The register must be:
- Kept up to date after every inspection, incident, or change to the building
- Readily accessible to anyone who might disturb ACMs, including contractors and maintenance staff
- Reviewed whenever new work is planned
Alongside the register, you need a written asbestos management plan. This sets out how you will manage the ACMs in your building — who is responsible, how often inspections will take place, what action will be taken if conditions change, and how information will be communicated to workers and contractors.
A management plan without a register is incomplete. A register without a management plan is equally useless. You need both, and they need to work together as a single system.
Training Requirements Under the Asbestos at Work Regulations
The asbestos at work regulations require employers to provide adequate information, instruction, and training to employees who may be exposed to asbestos — or who supervise those who are. This is not limited to people doing hands-on work with ACMs.
Training must be appropriate to the role. There are broadly three levels:
- Asbestos awareness training — for anyone who could accidentally disturb ACMs during their normal work, such as electricians, plumbers, joiners, and general maintenance staff
- Non-licensed work training — for workers carrying out lower-risk tasks involving ACMs that do not require a licence
- Licensed work training — for operatives carrying out licensable work, which includes formal training as part of the licensing requirements
Awareness training should cover what asbestos is, where it is likely to be found, the health risks associated with exposure, and what to do if suspect materials are encountered. The HSE’s Asbestos Essentials guidance provides practical task sheets that support this type of training.
Training must be refreshed regularly. It is also good practice to require contractors and self-employed tradespeople to demonstrate current asbestos awareness training before starting any work on your premises — ask for certificates and keep copies on file.
Making Sure Workers Understand the Risks in Practice
Training on paper is not enough. Workers need to understand the risks in practice, and that means making information visible and accessible on site. Post emergency procedures in clearly visible locations so people know exactly what to do if they accidentally disturb a suspect material.
Enforce strict hygiene controls in areas where ACMs are present or being worked on:
- No eating, drinking, or smoking in risk areas
- Use a Type H vacuum or damp rags — never sweep or use compressed air
- Double-bag all waste before removal
- Dispose of used PPE as asbestos waste — never reuse disposable items
- Provide washing and changing facilities separate from clean areas
Practical, scenario-based training is far more effective than a slide deck read once a year. These controls only work if people understand why they matter.
Licensed vs Non-Licensed Asbestos Work
Not all asbestos work requires a licence, but higher-risk tasks do. Licensed work includes activities such as removing or repairing asbestos insulation, asbestos insulating board, and sprayed asbestos coatings. These materials release large numbers of fibres when disturbed and must only be handled by contractors holding a current HSE licence.
Non-licensed work covers lower-risk tasks — such as working with asbestos cement or certain floor tiles — where fibre release is more limited. Even so, non-licensed work still requires a risk assessment, appropriate controls, and trained operatives.
The distinction is not between regulated and unregulated — it is between two tiers of regulated activity. For licensable work, you must also notify the HSE in writing before work starts, within the timescales set out in the regulations. Keep copies of all notifications as part of your records.
Where asbestos removal is required, always use a licensed contractor. Attempting to remove licensable materials without the correct authorisation is a criminal offence — not a grey area.
Monitoring Exposure and Keeping Records
Monitoring asbestos exposure is a core part of compliance. For any task involving ACMs, you should be tracking what work was done, who did it, where it took place, and what the likely exposure level was.
Air monitoring by a competent analyst should be used to confirm that fibre levels are below the control limit during and after work. Results must be documented. For licensed work, clearance air testing is mandatory before an enclosure is removed — this is the four-stage clearance procedure, and it must be completed by an independent analyst.
Records of asbestos exposure should be kept for a minimum of 40 years, as advised by the HSE. This reflects the long latency period of asbestos-related diseases — symptoms can take decades to appear, and historical records may be critical in future compensation or enforcement cases.
Maintain records of:
- All risk assessments and survey reports
- Air monitoring data and clearance certificates
- Training records for all relevant staff and contractors
- Notifications submitted to the HSE
- Maintenance and inspection logs
- Waste transfer notes for asbestos waste disposal
Store these securely but accessibly. Digital records in a consistent format make audits and inspections far simpler to manage.
HSE Enforcement: What Happens When Employers Fall Short
The HSE enforces the asbestos at work regulations with real authority. Inspectors can visit premises unannounced, issue improvement notices requiring action within a set timeframe, and serve prohibition notices that stop work immediately where there is a risk of serious personal injury.
Prosecution is not a last resort — the HSE will prosecute where there is evidence of serious or repeated non-compliance. Fines in the Crown Court are unlimited, and individuals as well as organisations can face criminal charges. Directors and senior managers have been imprisoned for asbestos-related offences, and the courts take a dim view of negligence where workers’ lives are at stake.
Common enforcement triggers include:
- No asbestos survey carried out before refurbishment or demolition work
- Unlicensed contractors carrying out licensable removal work
- Failure to inform workers and contractors of known ACM locations
- No asbestos register or management plan in place
- Inadequate or absent training records
- Failure to notify the HSE before licensable work begins
The cost of non-compliance — financially, legally, and in human terms — vastly outweighs the cost of getting things right from the start.
Asbestos Surveys Across the UK
Meeting your obligations under the asbestos at work regulations starts with knowing what is in your building. Supernova Asbestos Surveys carries out accredited surveys for commercial and non-domestic premises across the country.
If you are based in the capital, our asbestos survey London service covers all property types across the city and surrounding areas. For businesses in the north-west, our asbestos survey Manchester team provides fast turnaround on management, refurbishment, and demolition surveys. In the Midlands, our asbestos survey Birmingham service supports facilities managers, landlords, and contractors with fully accredited survey reports.
Wherever your premises are located, Supernova has a local team ready to help you stay compliant.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who does the duty to manage asbestos apply to?
The duty to manage applies to anyone responsible for the maintenance or repair of non-domestic premises — this includes employers, landlords, facilities managers, and managing agents. Where a contract or tenancy agreement allocates maintenance responsibility, the dutyholder is whoever holds that responsibility. Where no agreement exists, the duty falls on the building owner.
Do I need an asbestos survey before carrying out refurbishment work?
Yes. A refurbishment survey is a legal requirement before any intrusive maintenance, refurbishment, or demolition work begins. Working without one — and disturbing ACMs in the process — puts workers at risk and exposes you to enforcement action. The survey must be carried out by a competent surveyor, and samples must be analysed by a UKAS-accredited laboratory.
What is the difference between licensed and non-licensed asbestos work?
Licensed work involves higher-risk materials such as asbestos insulation, asbestos insulating board, and sprayed coatings. These must only be handled by contractors holding a current HSE licence. Non-licensed work covers lower-risk materials such as asbestos cement and certain floor tiles. Both categories are regulated — the difference is in the level of controls and the requirement for an HSE licence.
How long do I need to keep asbestos records?
The HSE advises keeping records of asbestos exposure for a minimum of 40 years. This reflects the long latency period of asbestos-related diseases, which can take decades to develop. Records should include risk assessments, survey reports, air monitoring results, training certificates, and waste transfer notes.
What happens if I do not comply with the asbestos at work regulations?
The HSE can issue improvement notices, prohibition notices, and pursue criminal prosecution. Fines in the Crown Court are unlimited, and individuals — including directors — can face imprisonment for serious or repeated breaches. Non-compliance also exposes organisations to civil liability if workers or third parties suffer harm as a result.
Speak to Supernova Asbestos Surveys
With over 50,000 surveys completed nationwide, Supernova Asbestos Surveys is the UK’s leading asbestos surveying company. Our UKAS-accredited surveyors work with employers, facilities managers, landlords, and contractors to deliver clear, compliant survey reports — fast.
Whether you need a management survey for a building in everyday use, a refurbishment survey ahead of planned works, or specialist advice on your asbestos management obligations, our team is ready to help.
Call us on 020 4586 0680 or visit asbestos-surveys.org.uk to book a survey or request a quote.