The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006

PART 1PRELIMINARY

Citation and Commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 and shall come into force on 13th November 2006, except regulation 20(4) which shall come into force on 6th April 2007.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“adequate” means adequate having regard only to the nature and degree of exposure to asbestos, and “adequately” shall be construed accordingly;

“appointed doctor” means a registered medical practitioner appointed for the time being in writing by the Executive for the purpose of these Regulations;

“approved” means approved for the time being in writing by the Health and Safety Commission or the Executive as the case may be;

“asbestos” means the following fibrous silicates—

and references to “CAS” followed by a numerical sequence are references to CAS Registry Numbers assigned to chemicals by the Chemical Abstracts Service, a division of the American Chemical Society;

“the control limit” means a concentration of asbestos in the atmosphere when measured in accordance with the 1997 WHO recommended method, or by a method giving equivalent results to that method approved by the Health and Safety Commission, of 0.1 fibres per cubic centimetre of air averaged over a continuous period of 4 hours;

“control measure” means a measure taken to prevent or reduce exposure to asbestos (including the provision of systems of work and supervision, the cleaning of workplaces, premises, plant and equipment, and the provision and use of engineering controls and personal protective equipment);

“emergency services” include—

“employment medical adviser” means an employment medical adviser appointed under section 56 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974;

“enforcing authority” means the Executive, local authority or Office of Rail Regulation, determined in accordance with the provisions of the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1998(1) and the provisions of the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority for Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems) Regulations 2006(2);

“the Executive” means the Health and Safety Executive;

“ISO 17020” means European Standard EN ISO/IEC 17020, “General criteria for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection” as revised or reissued from time to time and accepted by the Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique (CEN/CENELEC)(3);

“ISO 17025” means European Standard EN ISO/IEC 17025, “General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories” as revised or reissued from time to time and accepted by the Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique (CEN/CENELEC)(4);

“medical examination” includes any laboratory tests and X-rays that a relevant doctor may require;

“personal protective equipment” means all equipment (including clothing) which is intended to be worn or held by a person at work and which protects that person against one or more risks to his health, and any addition or accessory designed to meet that objective;

“relevant doctor” means an appointed doctor or an employment medical adviser;

“risk assessment” means the assessment of risk required by regulation 6(1)(a);

“the 1997 WHO recommended method” means the publication “Determination of airborne fibre concentrations. A recommended method, by phase-contrast optical microscopy (membrane filter method)”, WHO (World Health Organisation), Geneva 1997(5).

(2) For the purposes of these Regulations, except in accordance with regulation 11(3) and (5), in determining whether an employee is exposed to asbestos or whether the extent of such exposure exceeds the control limit, no account shall be taken of respiratory protective equipment which, for the time being, is being worn by that employee.

(3) A reference to work with asbestos in these Regulations shall include—

(a)work which consists of the removal, repair or disturbance of asbestos or materials containing asbestos;

(b)work which is ancillary to such work; and

(c)supervision of such work and such ancillary work.

Application of these Regulations

3.—(1) These Regulations shall apply to a self-employed person as they apply to an employer and an employee and as if that self-employed person were both an employer and an employee.

(2) Subject to paragraph (3), regulations 8 (licensing), 9 (notification of work with asbestos), 15(1) (arrangements to deal with accidents, incidents and emergencies), 18(1)(a) (asbestos areas) and 22 (health records and medical surveillance) shall not apply where—

(a)the exposure of employees to asbestos is sporadic and of low intensity;

(b)it is clear from the risk assessment that the exposure of any employee to asbestos will not exceed the control limit; and

(c)the work involves—

(i)short, non-continuous maintenance activities,

(ii)removal of materials in which the asbestos fibres are firmly linked in a matrix,

(iii)encapsulation or sealing of asbestos-containing materials which are in good condition, or

(iv)air monitoring and control, and the collection and analysis of samples to ascertain whether a specific material contains asbestos.

(3) No exposure to asbestos will be sporadic and of low intensity within the meaning of paragraph (2)(a) if the concentration of asbestos in the atmosphere when measured in accordance with the 1997 WHO recommended method or by a method giving equivalent results to that method approved by the Health and Safety Commission exceeds or is liable to exceed the concentration approved in relation to a specified reference period for the purposes of this paragraph by the Health and Safety Commission.

(4) Where a duty is placed by these Regulations on an employer in respect of his employees, he shall, so far as is reasonably practicable, be under a like duty in respect of any other person, whether at work or not, who may be affected by the work activity carried out by the employer except that the duties of the employer—

(a)under regulation 10 (information, instruction and training) shall not extend to persons who are not his employees unless those persons are on the premises where the work is being carried out; and

(b)under regulation 22 (health records and medical surveillance) shall not extend to persons who are not his employees.

(5) Regulation 17, insofar as it requires an employer to ensure that premises are thoroughly cleaned, shall not apply—

(a)in England and Wales, to a fire and rescue authority within the meaning of section 1 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004(6), or in Scotland to a relevant authority within the meaning of section 6 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005(7), in respect of premises attended by its employees for the purpose of fighting a fire or in an emergency; or

(b)to the employer of persons who attend a ship in dock premises for the purpose of fighting a fire or in an emergency, in respect of any ship so attended,

and for the purposes of this paragraph “ship” includes all vessels and hovercraft which operate on water or land and water, and “dock premises” means a dock, wharf, quay, jetty or other place at which ships load or unload goods or embark or disembark passengers, together with neighbouring land or water which is used or occupied, or intended to be used or occupied, for those or incidental activities, and any part of a ship when used for those or incidental activities.

(6) These Regulations shall not apply to the master or crew of a ship or to the employer of such persons in respect of the normal shipboard activities of a ship’s crew which are carried out solely by the crew under the direction of the master, and for the purposes of this paragraph “ship” includes every description of vessel used in navigation, other than a ship forming part of Her Majesty’s Navy.