The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires that employers have regard for the health and safety at work of not only their employees, but also so far as is reasonably practicable any person who may be affected by the work being carried out. 

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (2) require employers to assess health and safety risks to employees and other persons who may be affected and to identify appropriate measures to minimise those risks. These Regulations are in addition to the duties laid down under Health and Safety of Work Act 1974. A ‘competent person’ should be appointed to prepare a risk assessment.

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 make for provision for dealing with asbestos during refurbishment.

The latest legislation is the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. Regulation 4 of CAR 2012, which came into force April 2012, updating previous asbestos regulations to take account of the European Commission's view that the UK had not fully implemented the EU Directive on exposure to asbestos (Directive 2009/148/EC) and reinforced the duty of the duty holder to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises. A duty holder is a person(s) with repair and maintenance responsibilities for the premises and under Regulation 4 that person(s) is required to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment to determine whether asbestos is or is liable to be present in the premises. 

If asbestos is present or may be present the duty holder (as accepted by the guidance of the HSE) must specify in a written plan the parts of the premises affected and also how the risk from the presence of asbestos is managed.  The written plan should be revised and reviewed at regular intervals.  Management of the risk requires that information about the location and condition of the asbestos or suspect asbestos in the premises contained in the written plan should be made available to anyone likely to disturb it. Management of the risk requires monitoring of the condition of the asbestos containing material or suspect material.  Management of the risk further requires the proper maintenance of such material or its safe removal where necessary.