Non-licensed does not mean unregulated and it certainly does not mean easy. It means the work does not require a licence from HSE, because the material is lower release and the job is short. It still requires competence, training, a risk assessment, controls, correct waste handling and, for the notifiable subset, a notification, records and health surveillance. Most of what goes wrong on asbestos jobs goes wrong here rather than on licensed sites.
What is non-licensed
Typically asbestos cement products, textured decorative coatings, floor tiles and their adhesives, gaskets and rope seals: materials where the fibre is bound and the work is brief. HSE's own task sheets set out how such jobs are done. What decides it is the material, its condition and the work, not the size of the company doing it.
Notifiable non-licensed work
A middle tier introduced in 2012. Some non-licensed jobs must be notified to the enforcing authority, the worker must have medical surveillance, and records must be kept. It usually catches work on materials in poorer condition or where the disturbance is greater. A contractor who has never heard of it is a contractor who has not read the current regulations.
What is still required
Identification before work. A risk assessment and a plan of work. Trained operatives, because training is a duty rather than a nice to have. Controls to keep the material wet and the dust down. Type H vacuum equipment rather than an ordinary one. Correct wrapping, labelling and consignment of the waste. And a clean afterwards that leaves the area fit to use.
Doing it yourself
A householder working in their own home is outside most of the duties and is not outside the hazard. This site does not describe methods, because the point of a licensed and trained trade is that the reader does not do the work, and because the commonest domestic asbestos incident is somebody removing a small amount badly. Get it identified, then get a price from somebody who does this for a living.
Questions people ask about non licensed asbestos removal
Can I remove asbestos myself?
Some non-licensed work is legally possible for a householder in their own home. It is not advisable, this site gives no method, and the waste still has to be wrapped, consigned and taken to a permitted site.
Does non-licensed work need training?
Yes. Anyone doing non-licensed asbestos work needs training for that work, and anyone whose job could foreseeably disturb asbestos needs awareness training.
How do I know which category my job is?
From the material, its condition and the work planned, which is what the survey and the analysis establish. A competent contractor will tell you which category they are quoting and why.