Changes to the health and safety law [NZ]
Friday 17 Jul 2026
As New Zealand’s primary work health and safety law, the
Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) sets out what businesses need
to do to keep people healthy and safe at work. It also
establishes key work health and safety principles and rights.
Today, amendments to the Act received Royal Assent and became law with
the changes coming into effect on 1 April 2027. The amendments aim to
focus the health and safety system on critical risk so that businesses
are clear about the most important things to focus on. It’s part
of the Government’s wider health and safety reforms.
From 1 April 2027, small businesses (those with fewer than 20 workers)
will be required to manage critical risks and to prioritise critical
risk when complying with other provisions of the Act and its
regulations. Critical risks are those likely to cause the most serious
harm. Larger businesses must manage all risks but prioritise those that
are critical.
All businesses will need to identify critical risks based on what they
should reasonably know about their work.
Other key changes include:
- The ability for industry, worker, and employer organisations to
develop their own codes of practice for approval by the Minister of
Workplace Relations and Safety.
- Providing clarity on the injuries and illnesses that must be
notified to WorkSafe.
- Prioritising certain functions for regulators like WorkSafe, such as
providing guidance, developing and reviewing approved codes of practice
(ACOPs), developing Safe Work Instruments, and monitoring and enforcing
compliance.
- Setting out that where a business follows an ACOP, it is taken to
have complied with the Act meaning enforcement action cannot be taken
about a relevant matter.
- Narrower duties for landowners and officers.
- Amending the WorkSafe Act to better support our focus on critical
risks and educating businesses.
More information about the changes, and what they mean for businesses,
will be available in the lead up to the Act’s commencement.
Understanding the changes to health and safety
law
Source: Worksafe
New Zealand
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