WorkSafe New Zealand has finished rolling out a refreshed suite of asbestos guidance, developed with the asbestos industry and built to replace the single approved code of practice that had been in place since 2016. The work came out in stages, with the first published in 2024 and the final stages landing in April 2026, so the full set is now in use. For surveyors, removalists, assessors and the trades, this is the guidance your work is now measured against.
It is not a light edit of the old code. The old approach was one document trying to serve everyone. The new approach is a set of documents, each written for a specific audience, reflecting current industry practice rather than the state of play a decade ago.
Built around who you are, not one code for all
The structure is the most obvious change. Instead of a single code, there are tailored guides for each part of the industry. PCBUs get guidance on managing asbestos in their building or workplace. Surveyors get guidance on conducting asbestos surveys. Assessors get their own material on asbestos assessments. Removalists get removal guidelines backed by detailed safe-work-practice info sheets, and there is a parallel set for tradespeople working with or near asbestos, along with posters and learning modules. There is also a plain quick guide on asbestos in the home for everyone else, plus a mapping document that shows where the content of the old 2016 code now lives.
The practical benefit is that you no longer have to read a general code and work out which parts apply to your role. The guidance for your job is written for your job.
The technical changes that matter
Underneath the restructure are real changes to how the work is done, and these are the parts to read closely rather than assume continuity.
Clearance inspections now carry surface testing requirements that were not spelled out the same way before. Survey practice has changed too, with the use of swabs during surveys now excluded. Air monitoring requirements have been updated. And the guidance gives clearer definitions of terms that used to cause arguments on site, including what counts as asbestos-containing dust and what is meant by minor contamination. If your standard methods were set against the 2016 code, those four areas are where your procedures most likely need revising.
Where this sits in NZ law
The guidance operates on top of the Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) Regulations 2016, which took full effect in April 2018 and set the framework New Zealand still works under. That framework is worth restating because the new guidance assumes you know it.
Removal licensing runs on two classes. A Class A licence allows removal of any amount of both friable and non-friable asbestos, and it is the only licence that permits friable removal. A Class B licence covers non-friable asbestos only. No licence is required to remove up to 10 square metres of non-friable asbestos across the course of a job, but go over that and you need a licensed removalist, and any friable asbestos means a Class A holder regardless of quantity. The refreshed guidance sharpens the practice around those rules; it does not change the rules themselves.
Why WorkSafe pushed the refresh
The driver is the toll. WorkSafe puts asbestos as the leading cause of work-related death in New Zealand, with around 220 people dying from asbestos-related disease each year. That is the number behind the refresh. The survey, removal and assessment guides are meant to become approved codes of practice in their own right once health and safety law reforms allow, after further industry feedback expected into late 2026 and beyond, which would give them more legal weight than guidance carries today.
What to do with it
If you are a surveyor, removalist or assessor, the immediate task is to pull the guide written for your role and check it against how you currently operate, paying particular attention to clearances, swab use, air monitoring and the dust and contamination definitions. If you are a PCBU with asbestos in your building, read the management guide and confirm your asbestos management plan reflects the current expectations rather than the 2016 ones. The guidance being modular makes that easier than it used to be: there is now a document written specifically for what you do, and the sensible move is to work from it directly.