Guide
Asbestos disposal paperwork: the consignment note and your register
Updated
The paperwork is not bureaucracy for its own sake. It is the only evidence you will have that the material left your site legally, and it is the thing a cheap quote most often skips.
Asbestos is hazardous waste
gov.uk lists asbestos as an example of hazardous waste, and sets out a duty of care for businesses in England that produce, hold, carry or receive it. The duty splits by role: producer or holder, carrier, and consignee, the business that receives the waste for recycling or disposal (gov.uk). Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have their own rules, which gov.uk links from the same page.
What you must do as the producer
If your business produces, holds or has hazardous waste removed from its premises in England, gov.uk sets out the steps:
- Classify the waste to check that it is hazardous.
- Separate and store hazardous waste safely.
- Use authorised businesses to collect, recycle or dispose of it, checking that waste carriers are registered and that waste sites have environmental permits.
- Fill in the parts of the consignment note that apply to you, keep one copy and give two copies to the carrier collecting the waste.
- Keep records, known as a register, for 3 years at the premises that produced or stored the waste.
The register has to hold your copies of the consignment notes, the consignee returns you get back from the businesses that received the waste, and any related documents such as carrier schedules or records of rejected loads. Where those documents are not accurate or complete, gov.uk requires you to keep a record of the missing information.
What the carrier and the receiving site must do
- Carriers must register as a waste carrier, check parts A and B of the consignment note and the waste before accepting it, keep two copies with the waste until it reaches its destination, take it to the destination named on the note, which must be an authorised waste site, and keep their own register for one year at their head office.
- Consignees, the receiving site, must hold an environmental permit or a registered exemption, check the note and reject the waste if the note is missing, incorrect or incomplete, complete part E for waste they accept or reject, and send consignee returns to the Environment Agency and to the producer.
- You are the one who keeps the evidence. If the note never comes back, your register is incomplete and you are the party who cannot show where the material went.
Ask before booking, not after: which permitted site is the material going to, will I get a copy of the consignment note, and will I get the consignee return. A contractor who cannot answer those three questions is not the contractor you want.
The work-side paperwork, if there is removal too
- Licensable work must be notified to the appropriate enforcing authority using form ASB5 at least 14 days before the work starts, and the enforcing authority differs by premises type: HSE for construction and demolition sites, factories, hospitals, educational establishments and domestic premises, and the local authority for shops, offices, hotels and similar (HSE).
- Notifiable non-licensed work requires notification, designated areas, medical examinations and maintained health records (HSE).
- All non-licensed work must still comply with the general requirements of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 to prevent exposure (legislation.gov.uk).
- Air testing and clearance may be needed depending on the work. Ask what will be done and who issues the certificate.
Nothing here is legal advice. This is a summary of published gov.uk and HSE guidance as at the date on this page, for England unless stated. Read the current guidance and regulations before relying on any of it.