Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

This Act turns safety into an ongoing management duty. Businesses need to identify risks, manage them, consult where required, train workers, involve officers where due diligence matters and coordinate with contractors or other businesses on shared sites.

Most businesses do not need to memorise the whole law. The useful starting point is to know when it is likely to affect a contract, customer journey, employee process, data flow or company decision.

The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026 starts on 1 April 2027. It adds a critical-risk framework, separates small and large PCBUs for specified duties, changes cooperation where PCBUs share a duty and restates officer due diligence.

For small PCBUs, only the specified duties are narrowed. Other provisions continue to apply, and all PCBUs must identify and prioritise critical risks as the amended Act requires. Failure to comply with the specific prioritisation requirement is not itself an offence, although the underlying duties and other applicable offence provisions continue.

A small PCBU has fewer than 20 workers carrying out work in any capacity. The test is broader than counting permanent employees. A seasonal business can qualify if it reasonably expects to stay below 20 workers for at least 9 months of the 1 July to 30 June financial year.

Record how you counted workers and, if numbers fluctuate, the basis for the forecast. A PCBU that is not small is treated as large.

A critical risk is a hazard listed in Schedule 1A, or another hazard or risk likely to result in death, a notifiable injury or illness, a notifiable incident or a listed occupational disease. Mental harm associated with a hazard is included.

The assessment must use what the PCBU knows, or ought reasonably to know, about its operations and the hazard. That makes the exercise business-specific. A low-risk office, a pharmacy, a construction subcontractor and a food manufacturer will not identify the same risks.

For a small PCBU, duties in sections 36 to 43 apply only to critical risks, apart from section 36(3)(e). The same limitation applies to regulations 9, 15(2) and 19.

That is a targeted limitation, not a blanket exemption. Section 36(3)(e) continues according to its terms. Other parts of the Act and regulations continue, and the small PCBU must prioritise critical risks while complying with them.

Where PCBUs share a duty, large PCBUs must co-operate in relation to the whole matter. Small PCBUs must co-operate in relation to critical risks and may co-operate on other risks. If small and large PCBUs work together, the large PCBU's broader obligation remains.

Contracts can require a small PCBU to co-operate on non-critical risks as well. A construction site, shared warehouse, landlord-contractor arrangement or client workplace should therefore have a responsibility matrix that matches the law and the contract.

The amendment restates officer due diligence. It covers the required knowledge of health and safety matters and operations, appropriate resources and processes, timely responses to health and safety information, processes for complying with duties, and verification that those resources and processes are used.

The approved-code compliance rule applies where the code covers the same risk and circumstances. Transitional rules restrict that effect to new approved codes and two existing codes identified by the Act. Check the code and its legal status before relying on that rule.