The consultation on the Control of Asbestos Regulations closed in January, and the case for making four stage clearance genuinely independent rests on some uncomfortable data.
The HSE's consultation on the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 closed on 9 January 2026, and the central proposal is straightforward. The analyst who carries out the four stage clearance after a removal would have to be appointed independently by the client or duty holder, rather than by the removal contractor whose work is being checked.
The reason the HSE has preferred a regulatory change over more guidance is telling. Voluntary guidance has been in place and has not achieved independence in practice. The data behind the proposal shows that in more than half of cases the contractor still appoints the analyst who signs off their own removal works.
That is the whole problem in one sentence. The four stage clearance exists to provide an independent verification that an area is genuinely clean and safe for reoccupation. Where the party being checked chooses and pays the checker, the certificate at the end of it carries far less weight than the duty holder assumes it does.
A second proposal in the same consultation aims to make the guidance on Notifiable Non-Licensed Work clearer, which is a smaller change but a welcome one for anyone who has watched that boundary being interpreted generously. Duty holders do not need to wait for the outcome to act on either point. Appointing your own air testing provider, separately from whoever carries out the removal, is available to any client today. Spectra runs a network of mobile laboratories that allows analysts to be on site across London, the South East and nationally, including the out of hours work that retail and banking premises depend on, so independence does not have to come at the cost of turnaround.
Over half. That is the number that should stop people in their tracks, because it means most clearance certificates out there were signed off by someone the removal contractor chose and paid. The whole point of the four stage clearance is that it is an independent check. We have always kept our air testing completely separate from removal, and if the regulations catch up with that then good, but you do not need to wait for a law change. You can appoint your own analyst tomorrow.
