Jan 25th 2023
Notifiable Incidents in Australia: What Business Owners Need to Know
Incidents happen. It's an unfortunate reality of doing business. But in Australia, there's a specific set of guidelines that businesses must follow when it comes to notifiable incidents. In this blog post, we'll run through what counts as a notifiable incident and what you, as a business owner, need to do if one occurs.
What Counts as a Notifiable Incident?
In Australia, a notifiable incident is defined as one of the following:
- the death of a person;
- a serious injury or illness, or
- a dangerous incident that exposes someone to a serious risk (even if no one is injured).
Examples of dangerous incidents include chemical spills, fires, and collisions. If any of these occur at your place of business, you are required by law to notify the relevant WHS Regulator as soon as possible. You can find more information about the definition of a notifiable incident and a complete list of who to notify here.
What Should You Do In The Case Of A Notifiable Incident?
If a notifiable incident occurs at your workplace, you should first ensure that everyone involved is safe and accounted for. Once you have done this, you need to notify the relevant authorities so that they can investigate the incident and take any necessary action. Depending on the severity of the incident, this could mean contacting emergency services (e.g. police, ambulance) and your WHS regulator.
Conclusion:
If an incident does occur at your place of business, your first priority should be ensuring everyone's safety. Once you've done that, you can begin working on containment and notification procedures.
SafetyDocs makes it easy for you to create and manage your own notifiable incident response procedure. We provide all the templates and tools you need to get started quickly and easily so you can rest assured knowing that you're prepared for any emergency situation.
For more information on these products and how they can help improve safety in your workplace, please get in touch with us today.
Author - Craig Cruickshank is the HSEQ Manager and Senior Technical Advisor at SafetyDocs by SafetyCulture.
Craig comes from a construction and environmental background, with experience in both the private and public sectors and is passionate about making health and safety information easy to find and understand for everyone.
Learn more about Craig's work on LinkedIn
Available for instant download and supplied in fully editable MS Word format for use in your business.
Please note that the above information is provided as a comment only and should not be relied on as professional, legal or financial advice.
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