Read the full text: Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 on legislation.gov.uk.
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR 2012) are the UK regulations that control exposure to asbestos and place a legal duty to manage asbestos on anyone responsible for the maintenance or repair of non-domestic premises. They apply to employers, landlords, managing agents and self-employed contractors, and require asbestos to be identified, recorded, assessed and managed through a written plan.
CAR 2012 also sets strict rules on who can carry out work on asbestos-containing materials, ranging from a simple notification for lower-risk work to a full HSE licence for higher-risk removal. Getting this wrong is a criminal offence — asbestos remains the single biggest cause of work-related death in the UK, and the regulations are enforced accordingly.
What CAR 2012 requires
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/632) came into force on 6 April 2012, consolidating and updating the previous 2006 regulations to implement EU Directive 2009/148/EC. They apply across Great Britain and sit under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
The core requirement is Regulation 4, the duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises. Anyone with responsibility for maintenance or repair of a building must take reasonable steps to find out if asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) are present, presume materials contain asbestos unless there is strong evidence otherwise, assess the risk of exposure, and put in place a written plan to manage that risk.
Beyond the duty to manage, CAR 2012 sets detailed requirements for anyone carrying out work that disturbs asbestos. Regulation 6 requires an assessment of the work before it starts. Regulation 8 requires notification of certain work to the enforcing authority. Regulation 10 requires information, instruction and training for anyone liable to be exposed. Regulations 11 to 18 cover control measures, protective equipment, air monitoring, health records and medical surveillance for licensable work.
CAR 2012 splits work into three categories: licensable work (requiring an HSE-licensed contractor), notifiable non-licensed work (lower risk but still requiring notification, health surveillance and a written record), and non-notifiable work (very low risk, such as brief encapsulated work). The category determines which duties apply.
Who CAR 2012 applies to
The duty to manage under Regulation 4 applies to anyone with an obligation, whether by lease, contract or otherwise, to maintain or repair non-domestic premises. In practice this covers:
- Building owners and freeholders — of offices, shops, factories, warehouses, schools, care homes and other commercial premises.
- Landlords and managing agents — responsible for common parts of let residential blocks, such as corridors, stairwells, roof spaces and plant rooms.
- Employers — where they occupy or control premises, or where their employees may work on or near asbestos-containing materials.
- Facilities managers — who hold day-to-day responsibility for maintenance and repair on behalf of an owner or occupier.
- Self-employed contractors and tradespeople — such as electricians, plumbers, roofers and demolition contractors, who must check the asbestos register before starting work and follow control measures if asbestos-containing materials could be disturbed.
The duty to manage does not apply inside private domestic dwellings, but it does apply to shared areas of residential blocks, and to any non-domestic building regardless of size — a small shop or single-office building has the same duty as a large commercial complex.
Key duties at a glance
The specific requirements depend on your role, but the following duties apply widely under CAR 2012:
- Duty to manage (Regulation 4) — identify or presume the presence of asbestos, record its location and condition, assess the risk, and prepare a written management plan.
- Assessment of work (Regulation 6) — before any work that disturbs or could disturb asbestos, assess the type of work and risk of exposure, and identify appropriate control measures.
- Plans of work (Regulation 7) — for licensable work, a detailed written plan of work must be prepared setting out how the work will be carried out safely before it begins.
- Notification of work (Regulation 8) — licensable work and notifiable non-licensed work must be notified to the relevant enforcing authority in advance.
- Information, instruction and training (Regulation 10) — anyone liable to be exposed to asbestos must receive adequate training so they understand the risks and precautions.
- Control measures (Regulations 11–13) — exposure must be prevented or reduced so far as reasonably practicable, and control measures must be properly used and maintained.
- Health records and medical surveillance (Regulation 17) — employees carrying out licensable work must be under medical surveillance and have health records kept for at least 40 years.
Penalties for non-compliance
The Health and Safety Executive enforces CAR 2012, alongside local authorities in some non-industrial premises. Breaches are criminal offences under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The HSE can issue improvement notices requiring specific action, prohibition notices stopping work immediately, and can prosecute in the magistrates' court or Crown Court.
Fines in the Crown Court are unlimited. Individuals responsible for serious breaches can be imprisoned for up to two years. The HSE's Fee for Intervention scheme allows inspectors to charge £163 per hour (2024 rate) for time spent identifying and investigating a material breach — a single visit prompted by a missing asbestos register or unlicensed removal work can easily run to several hours of chargeable time.
Asbestos exposure is estimated by the HSE to cause around 5,000 deaths a year in Great Britain from mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer and other asbestos-related disease — more deaths than are caused by road traffic accidents. It remains the single biggest cause of work-related death in the UK, which is why the duty to manage carries such serious enforcement consequences.
How this relates to risk assessments
CAR 2012 does not remove the general duty to carry out risk assessments under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The asbestos management plan required by Regulation 4 is a specific, additional document — but any work that could disturb an asbestos-containing material also needs its own task-specific risk assessment covering the wider hazards of the job, such as working at height, use of power tools, or confined spaces.
Before you can rely on a risk assessment being suitable and sufficient, you first need to know whether asbestos is present. This is exactly what the duty to manage is designed to establish — read our guide on whether you need a risk assessment to understand when a written assessment becomes a legal requirement for your work, and our overview of risk assessment legal requirements for the wider legal framework this sits within.
Anyrisks generates a compliant, site-specific risk assessment in under two minutes using our AI risk assessment generator. For work in older buildings, your assessment can flag asbestos as a hazard requiring the building's asbestos register to be checked before work starts — output is delivered as PDF and editable Word document for £29.
CAR 2012 and landlords
Landlords of commercial premises, and landlords responsible for common parts of residential blocks, are one of the groups most likely to hold the duty to manage under Regulation 4 — and one of the groups most likely to overlook it. A landlord who has never commissioned a survey, or who is relying on a survey from before a major refurbishment, cannot demonstrate they have taken reasonable steps to identify asbestos.
A typical failure looks like this: a landlord instructs a contractor to carry out repairs to a 1980s-built commercial unit without checking whether the ceiling tiles, floor tiles or pipe lagging contain asbestos. The contractor disturbs the material, releasing fibres, and both the landlord and contractor face investigation. The fix is straightforward — commission an asbestos management survey, keep the register current, and share it with every contractor before work begins. This single step prevents the majority of enforcement action seen in the property sector.
