File Ref: 260137
5 March 2026
Carl Wedderburn
By email: [FYI request #33703 email]
Dear Carl
Thank you for your Official Information Act (the Act) request received via fyi.org.nz on 12 February
2026 for:
•
a full list of revisions and amendments (time & date stamped) made to the approved code of
practice for the management & removal of asbestos from 2016 - 02/2026 [including] any
person or persons approving each revision or amendment as well as an[y] available
metadata showing when the online version of the ACOP was amended or altered by any
person on WorkSafe’s official (external) website.
Information being released Changes to the Asbestos ACOP
Revisions and amendments made to Approved Codes of Practice are approved by the Minister for
Workplace Relations and Safety and approval is gazetted at
www.gazette.govt.nz. Between
Ministerial approval of the Approved Code of Practice for the Management and Removal of
Asbestos (ACOP) on 26 September 2016, publication of its Notice of Approval on 6 October 2016,
(see Notice 2016-au5620) and February 2026, two minor or technical amendments were made to
the ACOP. These amendments were made at the same time, were gazetted and came into effect
on 7 December 2016. The amendments are detailed in the table below:
Location
Original text
Updated to
Section 28.5.2
Some laboratories analyse the
Some laboratories analyse the
(p185)
samples in accordance with AS
samples in accordance with AS
4946
Method for the qualitative
4964
Method for the qualitative
identification of asbestos in bulk
identification of asbestos in
samples.
bulk samples.
Appendix G
Information row, column 2
Information row, column 2
Safe Work Practice Five: Use this Safe Work Practice
Use this Safe Work
Removing Gaskets and
when inspecting friction ACM (eg
Practice when removing
Rope Seals
brake assemblies or clutch
gaskets and rope seals.
(p244)
housings) or cleaning housings. Do
not use compressed air to clean
dust from a brake assembly.
The updated ACOP includes new footnotes on pages 185 and 244. The footnotes read as follows:
p185 – Paragraph 28.5.2 was amended on 7 December 2016 by Amendment 1 to the Approved
Code of Practice for the Management and Removal of Asbestos as approved by the Minister
for Workplace Relations and Safety on 29 November 2016.
p244 - The information section above was amended on 7 December 2016 by Amendment 2 to the
Approved Code of Practice for the Management and Removal of Asbestos as approved by the
Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety on 29 November 2016.
Clarification to ACOP
In 2020 WorkSafe posted a website clarification on the ACOP. This clarification acknowledged that
the ACOP contains practices which do not reflect good practice and that these good practices
would be reviewed as part of a review of the ACOP (see
Clarifications on WorkSafe's approved
code of practice - Management and removal of asbestos). This clarification does not constitute an
amendment to the ACOP.
PO Box 165, Wellington 6140
Website metadata
The ACOP was published on the WorkSafe website and a copy of the ACOP was made available to
download in pdf format at the same time. Since publication of the approved amendments in
December 2016, there have been no further changes to the ACOP. The ACOP text is the text
approved by the Minister, including the approved gazetted amendments.
On the bottom of the current web page that includes the ACOP content, the “last updated” date is
5 September 2017. I consider this date likely reflects the move to a new platform for WorkSafe’s
website, rather than the date the ACOP was amended.
Other metadata from the website platform is available. The data indicates when the page(s) were
republished, however does not provide information about what, if anything, was amended before
republishing. To determine the exact nature of any changes made would require WorkSafe to
manually search through emails over a ten-year period. This would be a significant administrative
task and would impact our ability to carry out our core regulatory functions. For this reason, I am
refusing this part of your request under section 18(f) of the Act as the information cannot be made
available without substantial collation or research.
However, I am satisfied that no changes to the text of the ACOP have been made. This means that
any changes to the website are likely to have been either made to text that does not form part of
the ACOP, or to the formatting on the page, which would not affect the ACOP content.
This reply addresses the information you requested. You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to
investigate and review my decision, and further information is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. If you require further assistance, please contact
[email address]. Yours sincerely
Kelly Hanson-White
Deputy Chief Executive, Insights and Engagement
PO Box 165, Wellington 6140
2
