I'm just reading up on working with asbestos cement, the particular scenario is removing fairly significant amounts of AC sheets from a roof.

The acop doesn't seem to suggest that this would be licensable work.

The asbestos essential guides also state that this is non-licensable, but that if may become notifiable non licensed work if the sheets begin to break up.

Can anyone offer any clarity on this, have I interpreted this correctly or is there a point when work with asbestos cement could become licensable work?

Jscar

Assuming that your project is in the UK or EU, but if not similar principles would apply.....

As Jodie indicates your first port of call should be the demolition/refurbishment survey that should have been done assuming this is NOT for a domestic client. See HSE guidance HSG264.

Now, in many circumstances, the safest way of doing demolition is by machine - taking off an asbestos cement roof would be one of the exceptions to that general rule, as clearly "dropping" the roof is going to result in a lot of damage to sheets however weathered or not they may be.

Arguably it's a lot more important that you are confident that whoever strips this roof is competent to do it safely, than whether the work is or is not licensable. Falling from or through asbestos cement roofs is one of HSE's frequent reasons for prosecution and other enforcement action, but many times more people die prematurely as a result of exposure to asbestos fibres than die from falling from or through asbestos roofs.

[This is NOT to understate the risk of falling when doing roofwork - I've investigated 10 roofwork fatalities, all from falls]

Thence, if you are not going to take a wrecking ball to the roof, it's about a system of work that stops uncontrolled falls of both people and the stripped roof sheets.