From this date, all those undertaking asbestos removal must hold a licence. Make sure you have a licence, otherwise you will not be able to work beyond 4 April.
 
If you have not made the switch to a licence from a certificate of competence, you will not be able to carry out removal work greater than 10 square metres of non-friable material or any amount of friable material.

The deadline for new fully completed licence applications was 4 March. We are now unable to guarantee that any new applications will be processed and returned by 4 April.

We will try to process any new applications as quickly as possible. 

If you have already submitted an application but you know that it is missing information – for example, evidence of your certified safety management system - please send it to us as soon as possible. 

Please send the information as it is available, for example as your supervisor training certificates become available, as this will help us process the changes faster – meaning you get the conditions removed from your licences quicker. 

All new class A licence applications must also include evidence of a CSMS. 

Yes. Class B, or non-friable asbestos, removal can be done under a class A licence. Your nominated supervisor would need to hold the relevant training, for example, NZQA unit standard 29765, and your ARCP would need to reflect the different methodology. 

Class A licence holders must have provided us evidence of their certified safety management system by 4 April.

If for any reason you will not be able to fully submit this evidence, please get in touch to advise us of your circumstances. Please be aware that after 4 April we may begin the process of licence suspension for those companies in breach of the conditions of the licence.

If you have decided to change from a class A licence to a class B, regulation 79 of the Asbestos Regulations requires you to return your existing licence certificate to us with your application and supporting documentation.

We are unable to revoke the existing licence without surrender of the existing licence.

It is entirely possible that you will encounter sites where both friable and non-friable asbestos removal work is required. You can choose to do it all as friable work, but this may be cost prohibitive for your client. 

In this case, you can opt to do each as separate jobs at the same site, as long as you have the trained workers and supervisors to manage each part of the removal job.  

In this scenario, you may choose to use a single ARCP to cover both sites provided it contains the work methodology clearly and that it includes the relevant training details of your workers for both classes of work.

Each work class will require a separate notification to us outlining the work and supervisors.

We are trying to get functionality added to our web notification form to allow you to modify/amend your notifications, for example, to allow for changes should supervisors be sick or jobs take more time. 

In the meantime, if you need to amend your notifications please email asbestos@worksafe.govt.nz.

The regulations allow workers to undertake a maximum of four weeks class B asbestos removal work in any given year without the need to hold unit standard 29765.

This applies to the worker, who is being guided by an appropriately trained supervisor and that a company has an appropriate licence to undertake the class B work.