Why Is Asbestos Not Covered by the COSHH Regulations?
If you manage a building constructed before 2000, understanding why is asbestos not covered by the COSHH regulations is not just an academic exercise — it has direct implications for how you comply with the law. Get this wrong and you could find yourself operating under the wrong regulatory framework, appointing the wrong contractors, or failing to meet your legal duties entirely.
The short answer is that asbestos is deliberately excluded from COSHH because it has its own dedicated, far more stringent legal framework. But the full picture is worth understanding properly, because several other pieces of legislation also apply — and they all interact in ways that matter on the ground.
What COSHH Actually Covers — And What It Doesn’t
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) provide a broad framework for managing hazardous substances in the workplace. They cover chemicals, fumes, dusts, vapours, biological agents, and a wide range of other harmful materials that workers may encounter in the course of their duties.
However, COSHH explicitly excludes certain substances that are already regulated under more specific legislation. Asbestos is one of them. Lead is another.
The reasoning is straightforward: the risks posed by asbestos fibres are so severe, and the circumstances in which people encounter them so varied and complex, that a standalone regulatory framework was deemed necessary. This isn’t a loophole or an oversight — it’s a deliberate policy decision by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Parliament to ensure asbestos receives the highest possible level of regulatory attention, entirely separate from the general COSHH umbrella.
The standard COSHH approach of assess, control, and monitor is simply not sufficient for a substance with the profile of asbestos. The regulation that fills that gap is the Control of Asbestos Regulations (CAR).
The Control of Asbestos Regulations: The Real Legal Framework
CAR is the primary legal instrument governing asbestos in Great Britain. It is comprehensive in scope, setting out licensing requirements, notification duties, exposure control limits, medical surveillance obligations, and the requirement to protect workers and anyone else who may be affected by asbestos work.
CAR applies to all work with asbestos-containing materials (ACMs), whether that’s a full removal project or simply drilling into a ceiling tile that contains chrysotile. The regulations divide asbestos work into three distinct categories:
- Licensed work — the highest-risk activities, which must only be carried out by a contractor holding a current HSE licence
- Notifiable non-licensed work (NNLW) — lower-risk but still requiring notification to the relevant enforcing authority, along with medical surveillance and record-keeping
- Non-licensed work — the lowest-risk category, subject to fewer controls but still regulated under CAR
Understanding which category your planned work falls into is not optional. Using an unlicensed contractor for work that legally requires a licence is a criminal offence, not merely an administrative error.
Regulation 4: The Duty to Manage
One of the most significant provisions within CAR is Regulation 4, which places a legal duty on the owners and managers of non-domestic premises to manage asbestos. This duty also extends to the common areas of multi-occupancy residential buildings, such as purpose-built flats.
The duty holder — which could be a building owner, employer, or managing agent — must take reasonable steps to find out whether ACMs are present, assess their condition, and put in place a written asbestos management plan. That plan must be kept up to date and shared with anyone who might disturb the materials, including maintenance workers and contractors.
A management survey is typically the starting point for fulfilling this duty. It identifies the location, type, and condition of any ACMs in the building and provides the information needed to build your management plan.
Why Asbestos Needed Its Own Dedicated Regulations
To understand why asbestos sits outside COSHH, it helps to consider what makes it uniquely dangerous compared to most other hazardous substances.
Asbestos fibres are microscopic. When ACMs are disturbed, those fibres become airborne and can be inhaled without any immediate sensation — no smell, no irritation, no warning. The diseases they cause — mesothelioma, asbestosis, asbestos-related lung cancer, and pleural thickening — have latency periods of 20 to 50 years. By the time symptoms appear, the damage is irreversible and, in the case of mesothelioma, almost always fatal.
This combination of invisible exposure, decades-long latency, and fatal outcomes means that the standard COSHH risk assessment approach is wholly insufficient on its own. Asbestos requires additional layers of control that go far beyond what COSHH was designed to deliver:
- Licensing of contractors for high-risk work
- Mandatory air monitoring during licensable work
- Specific decontamination procedures and enclosure requirements
- Waste disposal requirements under hazardous waste regulations
- Compulsory medical surveillance for licensed workers
- Detailed record-keeping and notification obligations
COSHH wasn’t designed to accommodate all of that. CAR was — and that’s precisely why the exclusion exists.
Where COSHH Still Has a Role in Asbestos Work
Excluding asbestos from COSHH doesn’t mean COSHH becomes irrelevant whenever asbestos is on site. When workers carry out non-licensed asbestos work, they may simultaneously be exposed to other hazardous substances — for example, the adhesives used to fix floor tiles, or the dust from surrounding building materials. In those situations, COSHH assessments still apply to those other substances as normal.
The key principle is that asbestos fibres themselves are regulated exclusively under CAR. Everything else on site falls under COSHH.
This distinction matters in practice. A contractor working on a refurbishment project involving both asbestos floor tiles and chemical strippers needs to operate under both frameworks simultaneously — CAR for the asbestos, COSHH for the chemicals.
Other Regulations That Work Alongside CAR
CAR doesn’t operate in isolation. Several other pieces of legislation interact with it, and duty holder obligations often span multiple regulatory frameworks at the same time.
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act places overarching duties on employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare of their employees — and to protect others who may be affected by their work activities. This general duty sits above all specific regulations, including CAR.
It means that even where CAR doesn’t explicitly cover a particular scenario, the general duty still applies. There is no gap in the law that provides a safe harbour for negligence.
CDM Regulations
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM) are relevant whenever construction, refurbishment, or demolition work is planned. CDM requires that asbestos surveys are carried out as part of the pre-construction planning phase, and that information about ACMs is gathered and communicated to the principal contractor before work begins.
If your project involves any structural work or significant refurbishment, a refurbishment survey is required before work commences. This is a more intrusive survey than a management survey — it involves accessing areas that will be disturbed and is designed to locate all ACMs in the relevant zones before any work puts people at risk.
For projects involving full or partial demolition, a demolition survey is required. This is the most intrusive type of asbestos survey, designed to locate all ACMs throughout the entire structure before demolition work begins.
RIDDOR
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) require that certain asbestos-related events are reported to the HSE. This includes the uncontrolled release of asbestos fibres, cases of mesothelioma diagnosed in workers, and other specified asbestos-related diseases.
RIDDOR creates a reporting obligation that runs parallel to the control obligations under CAR. Failing to report a notifiable event is itself a breach of the regulations.
HSG264: The Practical Guide to Asbestos Surveys
The HSE’s guidance document HSG264 — Asbestos: The Survey Guide — is the definitive practical reference for anyone commissioning or carrying out asbestos surveys. It sets out the methodology for both management surveys and refurbishment/demolition surveys, defines the competency requirements for surveyors, and explains how to interpret and act on survey results.
Every survey carried out by Supernova Asbestos Surveys is conducted in full accordance with HSG264. This ensures that the reports we produce are legally defensible, accurately reflect the condition of ACMs, and give you the information you need to make sound decisions about your building.
If you’re uncertain whether your existing survey meets HSG264 standards — particularly if it was carried out some years ago — it’s worth having it reviewed. Outdated surveys can leave you with an incomplete picture and expose you to regulatory risk.
The Duty Holder’s Practical Obligations
Whether you’re a facilities manager, a landlord, or a business owner, your obligations under CAR are clear. Here’s what you need to have in place:
- An asbestos survey — carried out by a competent, qualified surveyor to locate and assess all ACMs in your premises
- An asbestos register — a written record of all identified ACMs, including their location, type, condition, and risk rating
- An asbestos management plan — a documented plan setting out how you will manage the ACMs, including monitoring schedules, maintenance procedures, and any planned remediation
- Regular re-inspections — ACMs must be re-inspected periodically to check that their condition hasn’t deteriorated
- Information sharing — anyone who might disturb ACMs must be informed of their location before work begins
- Training — employees who may encounter ACMs must receive appropriate asbestos awareness training
If your existing asbestos register is out of date or you haven’t had a formal check in some time, a re-inspection survey will bring your records back into compliance and ensure you’re meeting your ongoing duty to manage.
What Happens When Asbestos Is Found
Finding asbestos in a building doesn’t automatically mean it needs to be removed. In many cases, ACMs that are in good condition and are unlikely to be disturbed are best left in place and actively managed. Removal itself creates a disturbance risk, and the decision to remove should always be based on a proper risk assessment rather than a precautionary reflex.
Where removal is necessary — because the material is damaged, deteriorating, or located in an area that will be refurbished — it must be carried out by a licensed contractor for licensable materials. Our asbestos removal service ensures that all work is carried out safely, legally, and in full compliance with CAR and HSE guidance.
If you’re unsure whether materials in your building contain asbestos, a testing kit allows you to collect samples from suspect materials and have them analysed by our UKAS-accredited laboratory — a practical first step before committing to a full survey.
HSE Enforcement: What Inspectors Look For
The HSE takes asbestos compliance seriously. Inspectors have the power to enter workplaces unannounced, review documentation, interview workers, and issue improvement notices, prohibition notices, or prosecute in serious cases. Penalties for non-compliance can include unlimited fines and custodial sentences for the most serious breaches.
When an HSE inspector visits premises where asbestos work is being carried out — or where ACMs are present — they will typically want to see:
- A current asbestos survey report and register
- A written asbestos management plan
- Evidence that the plan is being implemented and reviewed
- Contractor documentation, including licences where required
- Records of worker training and medical surveillance
- Notification records for any NNLW carried out on site
If you cannot produce these documents on request, you are in breach of your legal duties — regardless of whether any actual harm has occurred. The duty to manage is a proactive obligation, not a reactive one.
Why the Distinction Between CAR and COSHH Matters in Practice
Some duty holders make the mistake of assuming that because they have a COSHH assessment in place, their asbestos obligations are covered. They are not. A COSHH assessment, however thorough, does not satisfy the requirements of Regulation 4 of CAR, does not replace the need for an HSG264-compliant survey, and does not fulfil the duty to manage.
Equally, contractors who carry out asbestos work without understanding the three-tier licensing structure under CAR — and without being aware of where COSHH still applies to other substances on site — risk breaching both frameworks simultaneously.
The practical takeaway is this: if asbestos is present or suspected in your premises, CAR governs your obligations in relation to those materials. COSHH governs everything else on site. Both frameworks must be understood and applied correctly.
Supernova Asbestos Surveys: Nationwide Coverage, Full Regulatory Compliance
Supernova Asbestos Surveys has completed more than 50,000 surveys across the UK, working with property managers, landlords, facilities teams, and contractors to ensure full compliance with CAR, HSG264, and all associated regulations.
We provide the full range of survey types to suit your circumstances — whether you need a management survey for ongoing compliance, a refurbishment or demolition survey ahead of planned works, or a re-inspection to bring an existing register up to date. Our surveyors are fully qualified and our reports are HSG264-compliant, giving you a legally defensible record that stands up to HSE scrutiny.
We operate nationwide. If you’re based in the capital, our asbestos survey London team is ready to assist. We also have dedicated teams covering asbestos survey Manchester and asbestos survey Birmingham, with rapid turnaround times and competitive pricing across all regions.
To discuss your requirements or book a survey, call us on 020 4586 0680 or visit asbestos-surveys.org.uk.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is asbestos not covered by the COSHH regulations?
Asbestos is explicitly excluded from COSHH because it is governed by its own dedicated legislation — the Control of Asbestos Regulations (CAR). The HSE and Parliament determined that the unique risks posed by asbestos fibres, including their invisibility, their long latency period, and the fatal diseases they cause, required a standalone regulatory framework with far more stringent controls than COSHH was designed to provide.
Does COSHH play any role at all when asbestos is present on site?
Yes, but only in relation to other hazardous substances present at the same time. If a contractor is working on a site that contains both asbestos and chemical strippers, for example, COSHH applies to the chemicals while CAR applies to the asbestos. The two frameworks operate in parallel — COSHH does not apply to asbestos fibres themselves.
What is the duty to manage under the Control of Asbestos Regulations?
Regulation 4 of CAR places a legal duty on the owners and managers of non-domestic premises — and the common areas of multi-occupancy residential buildings — to identify whether ACMs are present, assess their condition, and produce a written asbestos management plan. This duty is proactive: you must act before any disturbance occurs, not in response to it.
Do I need to remove asbestos if it’s found in my building?
Not necessarily. ACMs that are in good condition and are unlikely to be disturbed are often best managed in place rather than removed. Removal creates a disturbance risk and should only be carried out where the material is damaged, deteriorating, or located in an area subject to refurbishment or demolition. Any removal of licensable materials must be carried out by an HSE-licensed contractor.
What surveys are required before refurbishment or demolition work?
Before any refurbishment work that will disturb the fabric of a building, a refurbishment survey is required under HSG264. Before demolition — whether full or partial — a demolition survey must be carried out. Both are more intrusive than a standard management survey and are designed to locate all ACMs in the areas that will be affected by the planned works. These requirements are also reinforced by the CDM Regulations.