- Register
- Workplace asbestos
- Column F
- Review
- Checked
- 8 Oct 2026
The asbestos register, all six columns
Column F · Review
Reviewing and handing over the asbestos register
A register is reviewed when something changes: the management plan is reviewed, more asbestos is found, or asbestos is removed, disturbed, sealed or enclosed. When control of the workplace passes to someone new, the outgoing person must, so far as reasonably practicable, give them the register.
General information, not legal or safety advice. Safe Work Australia is reviewing the model asbestos framework, including the regulations and codes of practice, and your Commonwealth, state or territory WHS regulator can advise on registers and compliance.
The triggers, source by source
Each row keeps its own source’s terms. The current model regulation on review lists three events. The five-year interval appears in the code and guidance, and in Queensland’s and Victoria’s own wording; the review before refurbishment or demolition sits in the model rules for that work, covered in column D.
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| Model WHS Regulations (as at 5 December 2025) | Review, and revise as necessary, when the management plan is reviewed, further asbestos is identified, or asbestos is removed, disturbed, sealed or enclosed. |
| Model code (July 2020) | Also when refurbishment or demolition is to be done, and the register “should be reviewed at least once every five years”. |
| Registers guide (August 2023) | You must review and update the register at least every 5 years, and also on events including those above, planned refurbishment or demolition, or a request from a representative, business or worker. |
| Queensland | “The register must be reviewed at least once every five years or earlier if” asbestos is disturbed, removed, sealed or enclosed, more is identified, or the management plan is reviewed. |
| Victoria | At least every five years, even if nothing has changed. Between reviews the register must be kept current: updated for any change in condition, any asbestos removed, enclosed or sealed, and any new asbestos identified. |
What a review involves
The model code expects a visual inspection of the listed asbestos to check its condition, helped by earlier registers and clearance certificates. Because ageing material can start to release fibres, the registers guide suggests more often: it says you should schedule a regular visual inspection of the asbestos and ACM at your workplace, for example once a year, and update the register.
Victoria’s official asbestos site asks for each review to be written down: when it happened, what it involved, the outcome, and who did it.
When asbestos is disturbed
First, the national agency’s advice to a worker is that if you think your work has disturbed asbestos, stop and let your employer or health and safety representative know. Queensland’s rule for dust or debris contaminated with asbestos (ACD) at a workplace is that it has to be cleaned up by a Class A asbestos removalist, unless it is:
- “associated with a Class B asbestos removal job”;
- “generated by a removal job of 10 square metres or less of non-friable asbestos”; or
- a ‘minor contamination’ not associated with asbestos removal.
For guidance and examples of a minor contamination, Queensland points to the Safe Work Australia website.
Safe Work Australia’s minor contamination fact sheet states the same rule under the model WHS Regulations, which every jurisdiction has implemented except Victoria.
Handing it over
Selling a building is the guide’s own example: if you plan to give up management or control of a workplace, such as by selling the building, you must pass the asbestos register on to the person who takes over that management or control. It suggests adding the new owner or manager’s contact details as you hand it over.
For the person taking over, the model code says there is no need to start a new register where one exists; the existing one must be reviewed, revised if necessary, and kept readily accessible.