My renewals over the last few years have all been - "Use the autopilot as you normally would and I will tell you as and when i wish you to disengaged it"
I reality this usually means cruise and setup on AP then approach, go around and unusual position recovery without AP. (Although Unusual Position recovery may involve disengaging the AP if it was engaged when the upset was simulated - or indeed if the examiner used the AP to generate the upset).
Fortunately the CAA have moved on from the dark days of "You can't use it at all".