Safety in Australia - Codes of Practice

Codes of Practice

The model WHS Act and Regulation are supported by codes of practice. Codes of Practice are developed to give practical guidance on how the requirements of the Workplace Health & Safety Act 2011 and Workplace Health & Safety Regulation 2011. Codes of Practice are very important documents; The codes of practice are admissible in court as evidence of whether a duty has been complied with. They’ll also provide evidence of what is known about a particular hazard or risk in control measures and can also be relied on determining what is reasonably practicable. Those codes of practice really set the benchmark and you can choose to follow that code or you can choose to follow another way that provides the same or better level of protection. So a good example in this respect is there is a general risk management code of practice. You can follow that code, but if you’re a more sophisticated organisation or a larger organisation you may choose to follow the international standard on managing risk in ISO31000.