The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, usually shortened to CAR 2012, are the current asbestos regulations for Great Britain. They apply to employers, to the self-employed, to duty holders responsible for maintaining non-domestic premises, and in several respects to employees. They cover every kind of work that may disturb asbestos, from a full licensed removal down to drilling one hole through a wall nobody has surveyed.
Who is covered
Employers whose workers may be exposed. The self-employed, who are treated as their own employer for these purposes. Duty holders responsible for maintenance and repair of non-domestic premises, under regulation 4. And employees, who have their own duties to cooperate and to use what they are given. A homeowner doing work in their own home is outside most of it and is still buying a hazardous job.
What they require
Identify asbestos before work starts, assess the risk, prevent exposure or reduce it to the lowest level reasonably practicable, use a licensed contractor for licensable work and notify it, train anyone liable to disturb asbestos, monitor and clear the air where the regulations require it, and handle the waste as hazardous waste. The Approved Code of Practice L143 explains what compliance looks like in practice.
Licensable, notifiable and neither
CAR 2012 divides work into three. Licensable work, which needs an HSE licence and advance notification. Notifiable non-licensed work, which needs notification, records and health surveillance but not a licence. And non-licensed work, which needs competence and control but neither. Which bucket a job falls into is decided by the material and the work, not by who is doing it.
What replaced what
CAR 2012 consolidated and replaced the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006, which had itself replaced the 2002 regulations that introduced the duty to manage. Older buildings will have paperwork citing the earlier numbers; the obligations have been broadly continuous since 2004 and the current citation is the 2012 regulations.
Questions people ask about the control of asbestos regulations apply to
What does CAR 2012 stand for?
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, the statutory instrument that governs work with asbestos in Great Britain. Northern Ireland has its own equivalent.
Do the regulations apply to householders?
Most duties fall on employers, the self-employed and duty holders rather than on a householder working in their own home. The waste rules and the general duty not to endanger others still reach everybody.
Where is the duty to manage in the regulations?
Regulation 4. It is the one duty that applies to premises rather than to work, which is why it catches owners and managing agents who employ nobody.