Netherlands Enacts Asbestos Work Permit Law But Commencement Awaits Royal Decree

Netherlands Asbestos Work Permit Law Completes The Enabling Stage

New Article 19a of the Working Conditions Act will prohibit a company from carrying out asbestos-removal work, demolition where people are or may be exposed to asbestos, or specified asbestos processing unless the minister has granted a permit. The processing cases will be designated through subordinate legislation.

The Act also authorises rules on applications, grant, amendment, suspension, withdrawal, validity, work categories, permit conditions and supporting information. A public register will identify the permit holder, business registration number, permit reference, permit type and authorised work categories.

This is a material update to Foresight's earlier coverage of the draft implementing decree. At that point, the detailed operating system was proposed and the enabling Act still awaited official publication. The Act is now law, but the practical permit architecture remains dependent on the final decree and ministerial rules.

Commencement And Detailed Asbestos Rules Remain Outstanding

Article III states that the law will enter into force on a date set by royal decree. No date was fixed in the Act or identified by 2 October 2026. Publication does not itself switch contractors from the existing certification framework to permits.

The enacted text contains no new asbestos exposure limit. The draft decree retains the existing Dutch eight-hour limit of 2,000 fibres per cubic metre, but that detail remains part of the subordinate rulemaking. The Act instead changes governance, authorisation and enforceability.

Article 33 brings breach of the future permit prohibition into the Working Conditions Act's enforcement framework. The law also allows a permit to be refused or withdrawn following an integrity assessment under Dutch public-administration legislation.

Transition Is Available Only For Timely Eligible Applicants

New Article 45a requires subordinate legislation to provide temporary protection for companies that submit a permit application on time and meet specified conditions or belong to a designated category. That protection ends when the application is decided and, ordinarily, no later than six months after Article 19a commences. The minister may extend the period until all initial applications are decided if necessary.

Manufacturers and property operators commissioning asbestos work should not assume that a contractor's current certificate will automatically become a permit. Contractors should map work to the proposed permit categories, prepare corporate and competence evidence and monitor the royal decree closely.

The framework is now certain, but timing risk remains. The one-month filing window proposed in the draft decree could make readiness before commencement more important than the absence of a fixed start date suggests.

Summary

The Netherlands has enacted the legal foundation for asbestos work permits, but the prohibition does not yet apply. Contractors and organisations commissioning asbestos work should maintain current controls, identify affected activities and prepare evidence while they await the royal decree and final subordinate rules.