The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has now launched its second post implementation review (PIR) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, (CAR 2012) seeking help from those who have experience working with asbestos.
Questions are being asked through an online survey; We need your help! Tell us about your experiences working with asbestos. The survey is open until 11 June 2021 and seeks input from participants on questions including:
- whether the current regulations set out a framework for preventing or reducing exposure to asbestos as far as practicable;
- whether HSE’s guidance on the CAR 2012 reduced the impact on businesses of the legislation;
- whether the CAR 2012 are effective in protecting workers from the risks of asbestos;
- the likely time and costs involved in undertaking risk assessments and other regulation requirements, and whether they are close to those estimated by the HSE;
- whether any negative, positive or other unintended consequences of the CAR 2012 have been experienced; and
- whether they are aware of the changes HSE made to its administrative guidance and processes to implement recommendations following the first PIR (published in 2017), and, if appropriate, whether those changes were beneficial.
It will be interesting to see whether those involved in this review will be as positive as those in the first PIR, where the majority view was that the regulations were practical to implement and were effective in achieving their objective to protect workers and others from the risks of exposure to asbestos. We look forward to publication of the second PIR in due course.
