Asbestos is still the single biggest cause of work-related death in Great Britain, yet the volume of enforcement action taken specifically under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR 2012) is surprisingly small — and, until recently, was shrinking. This page pulls together what the public record actually shows about asbestos prosecutions, fines, enforcement notices and convictions in the UK, drawing on the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) public Convictions History and Enforcement Notices registers, the HSE Media Centre, the 2022 Work and Pensions Committee (WPC) inquiry into HSE's approach to asbestos management, and British Safety Council analysis of the post-campaign sentencing trend.
One thing to be clear about at the outset: HSE no longer publishes a standalone annual breakdown of asbestos-specific enforcement. Those figures are now folded into HSE's Annual Report as management data, so there is no official league table of CAR 2012 prosecutions to look up. The numbers below are aggregated from the public registers and press notices, with the WPC's 2022 findings as the fixed baseline. Every figure names its source and its data period. This page covers CAR 2012 breaches only, plus a handful of clearly-labelled cases charged under other legislation (CDM 2015, the Health and Safety at Work Act) that arose from asbestos incidents. All-legislation HSE prosecution, fine and notice totals — across every industry and hazard — sit on our sister site's HSE enforcement statistics page, and we do not duplicate them here.
Key asbestos enforcement facts and figures
- 11 prosecutions were taken under the asbestos regulations in 2019/20 — about 3% of all HSE health and safety prosecutions that year (WPC, 2022).
- 82% conviction rate: HSE secured at least one conviction in 9 of those 11 cases in 2019/20, at an average penalty of £3,063 per offence (WPC, 2022).
- 60% fall: asbestos enforcement notices dropped 60% between 2011/12 and 2018/19, against a 10% fall in all HSE notices over the same period (WPC analysis, 2022).
- Prosecutions doubled: publicised asbestos prosecutions rose from 3 in the six months before HSE's January 2024 campaign to 7 in the six months after (British Safety Council, 2024).
- Just under £40,000: the average asbestos fine after the 2024 campaign, up from just over £30,000 before it (British Safety Council, 2024).
- 1,520 to 907: HSE inspections of licensed asbestos removal work fell 40% between 2012/13 and 2019/20 (WPC, 2022).
- 334 licence holders: active HSE asbestos removal licences at 8 May 2026, down from around 380 in 2020/21 (NORAC/HSE licence list; WPC, 2022).
- 9 and 5 years: HSE convictions stay on the public register for 9 years; enforcement notices for 5 years, published 5 weeks after service (HSE register methodology).
Figures are the latest available as of July 2026. This page is updated as new cases appear: the HSE registers and Media Centre feed in fresh convictions and notices continuously (convictions publish once a case is over a year old; notices five weeks after service), the British Safety Council and WPC figures are fixed one-off anchors, and the licence-holder count refreshes weekly from HSE's own list.
How many asbestos prosecutions are there in the UK each year?
HSE brought 11 prosecutions under the asbestos regulations in 2019/20 — roughly 3% of all HSE health and safety prosecutions that year, according to the Work and Pensions Committee's 2022 inquiry into HSE's approach to asbestos management. That is a strikingly low number for a substance that HSE itself blames for around 5,000 deaths a year, and it reflects the long latency of asbestos disease: the harm being prosecuted today was usually done decades ago, while the enforcement is triggered by present-day mismanagement rather than historic exposure.
There is no single official "asbestos prosecutions per year" series to quote, because HSE stopped publishing standalone annual asbestos enforcement statistics and folded them into its Annual Report as management data. The 11-cases figure is the last clean, committee-verified count. What the public record does show clearly is direction of travel — and since early 2024 that direction has been sharply upward, as the next section sets out. For the total number of HSE prosecutions across every hazard and industry (not just asbestos), see our sister site's HSE enforcement statistics page.
Did asbestos prosecutions rise after HSE's 2024 duty-to-manage campaign?
Yes — publicised asbestos prosecutions more than doubled, from 3 in the six months before HSE launched its "Asbestos: Your Duty" campaign on 15 January 2024 to 7 in the six months after (6 if you exclude one case that was an appeal against sentence), according to British Safety Council analysis. The first prosecution hit the headlines less than a week after the campaign launched. The campaign — part of HSE's wider Work Right programme — was aimed squarely at duty holders under Regulation 4, reminding building owners and managers of their legal duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises.
The average fine rose alongside the volume. British Safety Council put the average asbestos fine in the six months before the campaign at just over £30,000, and the average in the months since at just under £40,000 — a roughly 30% increase in the typical penalty. Two forces are pushing fines up: HSE prioritising the duty to manage as an enforcement theme, and the 2016 Sentencing Council guideline for health and safety offences, which ties fines to turnover and culpability and has driven penalties higher across the board.
| Measure | 6 months before campaign | 6 months after campaign | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publicised asbestos prosecutions | 3 | 7 (6 excl. one appeal) | More than doubled |
| Average asbestos fine | Just over £30,000 | Just under £40,000 | Up ~30% |
Source: British Safety Council, The duty to manage asbestos, the rise in prosecutions and other emerging trends (2024). The "Asbestos: Your Duty" campaign launched on 15 January 2024.
What is the average fine for an asbestos offence in the UK?
The average asbestos fine has climbed to just under £40,000 since HSE's January 2024 campaign, up from just over £30,000 in the preceding six months (British Safety Council, 2024) — but averages hide an enormous spread, and the story is really about the tail. At the low end, a duty-holder failing under Regulation 4 might be fined a few thousand pounds; at the high end, a corporate defendant with a long-running failure and a large turnover can be fined into the hundreds of thousands.
It is worth putting the modern figures against the older baseline. In 2019/20 the WPC recorded an average penalty of just £3,063 per offence across the 11 asbestos cases — a very different measure from the per-case fines quoted by the British Safety Council, and a reminder that "average fine" depends heavily on whether you count per offence, per case, or per defendant, and on whether a single very large fine is in the sample. The clearest way to read the trend is not the headline average but the recent worked examples in the case table below, which show the actual range a duty holder or contractor faces today.
Which recent CAR 2012 prosecutions stand out?
Recent asbestos prosecutions range from four-figure duty-to-manage fines to a six-figure penalty and a suspended prison sentence for large-scale unlicensed disturbance. The table below is a running selection built from the HSE Media Centre and UKATA's prosecutions feed. Note the charging regulation carefully: not every "asbestos case" is charged under CAR 2012. Where the disturbance happened during a construction or demolition project, HSE often charges under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) and, for individuals, Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 — and we label those cases explicitly rather than counting them as CAR 2012 breaches.
| Date | Defendant | Outcome | Charging regulation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | Sohan Group Ltd (client) | Fined £74,900 + £3,658 costs + £2,000 surcharge | CDM 2015 reg 5(4) — labelled, not CAR 2012 |
| Mar 2026 | Maize Metals Ltd (demolition contractor) | Fined £13,400 + £1,360 costs + £2,000 surcharge | CDM 2015 reg 15(2) — labelled, not CAR 2012 |
| Mar 2026 | Site manager (Cannock case) | 26 weeks' custody suspended 2 yrs; 5-year director disqualification | CDM 2015 reg 15(2) via HSWA s.37 — labelled |
| Nov 2025 | Elstree Film Studios Ltd | Fined £6,000 + £6,790 costs + £2,000 surcharge | CAR 2012 regs 5, 10 & 15 |
| Jul 2025 | A1 Property Maintenance Management Ltd | Fined £5,360 + £5,117 costs | CAR 2012 reg 4(6) — duty to manage |
| Apr 2025 | Manchester builder (Cheadle house) | 12-month community order, 180 hrs unpaid work + £2,000 costs | Unlicensed removal (CAR 2012) |
| Sep 2023 | Stark Building Materials UK Ltd (t/a Jewson) | Fined £400,000 + £9,664 costs | Local-authority (council) prosecution — not HSE |
Sources: HSE Media Centre (Nov 2025 Elstree; Mar 2026 Cannock), UKATA HSE prosecutions feed (Apr & Jul 2025), and national press (Sept 2023 Jewson). The March 2026 Cannock case followed the unlicensed clearance of 218 m² of asbestos-containing materials; the companies were charged under CDM 2015, not CAR 2012, which is why it is labelled rather than counted in the CAR 2012 tally. The Jewson case — a 15-year failure to manage asbestos at a Middlesbrough branch — was brought by Middlesbrough Council's environmental health team as a local-authority prosecution, not by HSE.
What happens if you breach the asbestos duty to manage (CAR 2012 regulation 4)?
Breaching Regulation 4 — the duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises — is a criminal offence that can carry an unlimited fine and, on indictment, up to two years' imprisonment. Regulation 4 is the single most-cited provision in duty-holder prosecutions: the July 2025 A1 Property Maintenance Management case, for instance, was charged specifically under Regulation 4(6). The duty holder is whoever is responsible, by contract or tenancy, for maintaining the premises — often a landlord, managing agent or freeholder — and the failure prosecuted is usually the absence of an asbestos survey, register or management plan.
Most Regulation 4 cases are dealt with in the magistrates' court and produce four- to low-five-figure fines, but the ceiling is high: where a duty holder's failure exposes workers or the public over a long period, or involves a large organisation, the Sentencing Council guideline can push the fine into six figures. In addition to the fine, defendants routinely pay HSE's costs and a victim surcharge, and individuals can face director disqualification. We explain the underlying legal duty in full in our guide to the duty to manage asbestos and the wider framework in our explainer on the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
Why have asbestos enforcement notices and inspections fallen?
Asbestos enforcement notices fell by 60% between 2011/12 and 2018/19 — six times the 10% fall in all HSE notices over the same period — and inspections of licensed asbestos removal work dropped 40%, from 1,520 in 2012/13 to 907 in 2019/20 and 890 in 2020/21, according to the Work and Pensions Committee. An enforcement notice is a formal order to put something right (an improvement notice) or to stop dangerous work (a prohibition notice); it is a lower-threshold tool than prosecution and is normally the first sign that enforcement is being scaled back or ramped up.
The WPC was critical of this decline, noting that there was no compelling evidence that compliance with the asbestos regulations had improved to justify a fall that far outpaced HSE's overall enforcement trend. The committee's report is the reason the 60%-versus-10% comparison exists at all — it is the only all-HSE notices figure we quote on this page, and strictly as the comparator that makes the asbestos-specific fall meaningful. The post-2024 campaign, and the rising prosecution count that came with it, can be read partly as HSE's response to exactly this criticism.
| Measure | 2012/13 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inspections of licensed asbestos removal work | 1,520 | 907 | 890 | Down ~40% |
| Asbestos enforcement notices | Fell 60% between 2011/12 and 2018/19 (vs 10% for all HSE notices) | Down sharply | ||
Source: Work and Pensions Committee, The Health and Safety Executive's approach to asbestos management (HC 560, 2022), analysing HSE data. The 10% figure for all HSE notices is included solely as the comparator to the asbestos-specific 60% fall.
How many licensed asbestos removal contractors are there?
There were 334 active HSE asbestos removal licence holders at 8 May 2026, according to HSE's weekly-updated licence list as mapped by NORAC — down from around 380 in 2020/21 as recorded by the Work and Pensions Committee. A licence is required for the highest-risk asbestos work (lagging, sprayed coatings, and most work on asbestos insulating board), and the size of the licensed sector is a useful backdrop to the enforcement picture: a smaller licensed pool doing more work, inspected less often, is exactly the risk profile the WPC flagged.
Working without a licence where one is required is itself a serious offence and a recurring theme in prosecutions — the April 2025 Manchester case and the March 2026 Cannock case both involved unlicensed clearance of asbestos-containing materials. The licence count refreshes weekly from HSE's own published list, so it is the most current figure on this page. For the size and shape of the wider removal sector, see our asbestos removal industry statistics.
How long do asbestos convictions and notices stay on the public register?
HSE convictions stay on the public Convictions History register for 9 years, and enforcement notices stay on the Notices register for 5 years, published 5 weeks after they are served. These register mechanics matter for anyone trying to count asbestos enforcement, because they define the window of data that is actually visible. A conviction is only published once the case is more than a year old, so the most recent prosecutions appear first in the HSE Media Centre and only later in the searchable register.
This publication lag is a large part of why manual aggregation from the registers and press notices is the only way to keep a current asbestos-specific count — and why the "official" number is always a little behind reality. It is also why this page tracks named cases with dates rather than claiming a single tidy annual total: the underlying registers roll forward continuously, and any figure is a snapshot of a moving picture. The registers themselves are free to search at resources.hse.gov.uk/convictions-history and resources.hse.gov.uk/notices.
Frequently asked questions
How many asbestos prosecutions are there in the UK each year?
The last clean official count is 11 prosecutions taken under the asbestos regulations in 2019/20 — about 3% of all HSE health and safety prosecutions — from the Work and Pensions Committee's 2022 inquiry. HSE no longer publishes a standalone annual asbestos figure, but British Safety Council analysis found publicised prosecutions more than doubled (from 3 to 7 in comparable six-month windows) after HSE's January 2024 duty-to-manage campaign.
What is the average fine for an asbestos offence in the UK?
The average asbestos fine was just under £40,000 in the six months after HSE's 2024 campaign, up from just over £30,000 before it (British Safety Council, 2024). Averages hide a wide range: duty-to-manage failures often draw four- to low-five-figure fines, while long-running corporate failures have reached hundreds of thousands of pounds. The 2019/20 WPC baseline recorded a much lower average of £3,063 per offence, measured differently.
Can you go to prison for asbestos offences in the UK?
Yes. Breaches of CAR 2012 (and related asbestos offences under other health and safety law) can carry up to two years' imprisonment on conviction in the Crown Court, alongside an unlimited fine. Custodial sentences are rare and often suspended — for example, the site manager in the March 2026 Cannock case received a 26-week sentence suspended for two years, plus a five-year director disqualification — but the power to imprison is real.
What happens if you breach the asbestos duty to manage (CAR 2012 regulation 4)?
Breaching Regulation 4 is a criminal offence. The duty holder — whoever is responsible for maintaining the non-domestic premises — can be prosecuted for failing to survey, record or manage asbestos, with fines that run from a few thousand pounds in the magistrates' court up to six figures for serious, long-running failures involving large organisations, plus HSE's costs, a victim surcharge and, for individuals, possible director disqualification.
Are all asbestos prosecutions brought by HSE?
No. Most are, but local authority environmental health teams also prosecute asbestos offences in the premises they regulate, and some cases arising from construction work are charged under CDM 2015 rather than CAR 2012. The £400,000 Jewson fine in September 2023, for instance, was a Middlesbrough Council prosecution, and the March 2026 Cannock companies were charged under CDM 2015 — which is why both are labelled separately from HSE's CAR 2012 tally on this page.
Behind almost every asbestos prosecution is the same root cause: someone disturbed asbestos they did not know was there, or knew about and failed to manage. For workers and duty holders whose jobs bring them into pre-2000 buildings, our CPD-certified Asbestos Awareness Course covers the training required under Regulation 10 of CAR 2012 — the practical way to stay on the right side of the enforcement statistics on this page.
The cheapest asbestos fine is the one you never trigger. Make sure your team can recognise and avoid disturbing asbestos before work starts.
Explore the Asbestos Awareness Course →Related guides
- Asbestos Statistics UK: Deaths, Exposure & Key Facts
- Asbestos Removal Industry Statistics UK
- Asbestos Survey Statistics UK
- The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 explained
- The duty to manage asbestos: registers, plans and Regulation 4
Sources & references
- HSE — Convictions History register (searchable public register; convictions held for 9 years)
- HSE — Enforcement Notices register (searchable public register; notices held for 5 years, published 5 weeks after service)
- HSE Media Centre — asbestos prosecutions and enforcement news
- HSE Media Centre — Cannock large-scale asbestos disturbance prosecution (9 March 2026)
- HSE Media Centre — Elstree Film Studios fined for asbestos disturbance (20 November 2025)
- UKATA — HSE News & Prosecutions feed
- Work and Pensions Committee — The Health and Safety Executive's approach to asbestos management (HC 560, 2022)
- British Safety Council — The duty to manage asbestos, the rise in prosecutions and other emerging trends (2024)
- HSE Work Right — "Asbestos: Your Duty" campaign launch (15 January 2024)
- HSE — Licensable work with asbestos and the asbestos licence-holders list
- NORAC — Asbestos licence-holders map (334 active holders at 8 May 2026)
Mark writes about workplace health & safety, asbestos awareness and accredited online training for Asbestos Awareness Course, part of Online CPD Academy.