Politics Live Blog - ongoing OLD
Health and safety laws set for overhaul
The Government has announced they will reform health and safety laws to help lessen what it is calling the cost and burden of compliance on low-risk businesses.
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says businesses have been struggling to meet the costs of compliance and that people want change.
“I have travelled across the country meeting with businesses, employers, and workers about how the current system works for them and what they want to see in this reform that will make their work safer. What I have been hearing consistently is that small, low-risk businesses are not sure which risks to focus on and struggle to meet the costs of compliance."
As a result, van Velden says that Cabinet has agreed to a suite of system-wide changes, including sharpening the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, to cut through what she calls "unnecessary red tape holding these businesses back".
As a result, van Velden says that Cabinet has agreed to a suite of system-wide changes, including sharpening the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, to cut through what she calls "unnecessary red tape holding these businesses back".
“The first change will be a carve-out for small, low-risk businesses from general Health and Safety at Work Act requirements. These businesses will only have to manage critical risks and provide basic facilities to ensure worker welfare.
“For example, a small clothing shop would still need to provide first aid, emergency plans, and basic facilities, such as suitable lighting, but wouldn’t need to have a psychosocial harm policy in place.
“This will improve outcomes for businesses and workers by focusing the system on critical risks and getting rid of unnecessary costs, making sure there is less paperwork and more clarity on what will make workplaces safe," van Velden said.
Cabinet has also agreed to:
- Reduce tick-box health and safety activities that do not protect workers from harm by sharpening the primary purpose of the Health and Safety at Work Act to focus on critical risk,
- Address over-compliance due to overlapping health and safety duties by clarifying the boundaries between the Act and regulatory systems that already manage the same risk,
- Cut compliance costs by reducing notification requirements to the regulator to only significant workplace events (deaths, serious injury, illness and incidents),
- Help end the proliferation of road cones by providing a hotline for the public to report overzealous road cone use, and for WorkSafe to confirm and provide guidance on instances of over-compliance.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden.