IM6 - Notification of Incidents to Regulators

Purpose

To ensure that Incidents of a certain nature are notified to the appropriate authority.

Definitions

Serious injury or illness is any injury or illness requiring the person to have immediate treatment as an inpatient in a hospital or medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure. (I.e. If a staff member was to suffer a serious spinal injury as a result of slipping on the floor of an aquatic facility).

Dangerous Incident is any incident that exposes a person to serious risk to their health and safety. (I.e. if a large amount of hazardous chemical was to leak from a Pool Plant Room and the building was evacuated, this would be considered a ‘dangerous incident’).

‘Treatment’ means the kind of treatment that would be required for a serious injury or illness and includes ‘medical treatment’ (i.e. by a registered medical practitioner), treatment by a paramedic or treatment by a registered nurse practitioner.

Incident and Accident Reporting

The owner or operator of an Aquatic Facility must ensure that the death of a person, a serious injury or illness to a person or a dangerous incident arising from work carried out by a business, undertaking or a workplace in an aquatic facility is documented, investigated and notified.

The owner or operator of an Aquatic Facility must ensure that a register of all deaths, serious injuries or illness or dangerous incidents is maintained and regularly reviewed as part of an aquatic risk assessment process.

Where the death of a person, a serious injury or illness to a person or a dangerous incident occurs within a workplace, the owner or operator of an Aquatic Facility must ensure that the relevant state/territory workplace health and safety regulator is notified.

Procedures should be put into place to ensure work health and safety incidents are promptly brought to the relevant individual’s attention, for example a manager and then notified to the regulator, if required.

Incidents Involving Multiple Businesses or Undertakings

If the ‘notifiable incident’ arises out of more than one business or undertaking then each must ensure that the incident has been notified to the regulator. There is no need for all duty holders to notify—only one need to.

In these circumstances the duty holders must, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult, cooperate and coordinate to put appropriate reporting and notification arrangements in place.

When and How to Notify

A regulator must be notified of a ‘notifiable incident’ immediately after the owner or manager of the aquatic location becomes aware of the incident arising from the business or undertaking.

The notice must be given by the fastest possible means which could be by telephone or in writing, for example by facsimile, email or other electronic means.

If notifications are made by telephone follow-up information may be requested either by telephone or in writing. If you are asked to follow-up in writing you must provide the required information in writing within 48 hours of the request being made.

Regulators have adopted a common sense approach to assessing whether an incident has been notified immediately. In other words incidents must be notified immediately as the particular circumstances permit.

In general when the owner or operator of an Aquatic Facility ‘becomes aware’ of a notifiable incident at the time that any of their workers in supervisory or managerial roles become aware of that incident. For example if a worker suffers a serious injury and notifies their immediate supervisor it is at this point that the PCBU is considered to be aware of the incident. It is essential that PCBUs develop appropriate internal communication systems to ensure safety incidents are promptly brought to the relevant persons’ attention.

Recording and Communicating Information

A clear description of the incident with as much detail as possible will help the regulator assess whether or not the incident is notifiable and the need for a follow-up investigation by the regulator.

Where insufficient details are provided in a telephone notification, the regulator may contact the notifier if further information is required. All WHS regulators have agreed that the following (see table below) information should be collected as a minimum at the point of incident notification.

Although all of this information may not be available at the time of notification, owner or operator of an Aquatic Facility must still notify the regulator immediately of the incident and provide the information they have. The rest of the information will be collected by the regulator at a later time.

Continuing Work

The owner or operator of an Aquatic Facility at which a notifiable incident has occurred must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the site where the incident occurred is not disturbed until an inspector arrives at the site or directs otherwise (whichever is earlier).

Requirements to preserve the incident site apply to any plant, substance, structure or thing associated with the notifiable incident. This means that any evidence that may assist an inspector to determine the cause of the incident is preserved.

An incident site may be disturbed:

• To assist an injured person
• To remove a deceased person
• To make the site safe or to minimise the risk of a further notifiable incident
• To facilitate a police investigation, or
• After an inspector has given a direction to
• Do so either in person or by telephone.

The sooner the regulator is notified, the sooner the site can be released. If however after arriving at the incident site an inspector considers that it should remain undisturbed in order to facilitate investigation of the incident they may issue a non-disturbance notice. This notice must specify the period for which the notice is to apply—no more than seven days.

Penalties apply if an individual or body corporate fails to preserve a site.

Site Preservation requirements only apply to the incident site.

Requirements to preserve a site only apply in relation to the immediate area where the incident occurred—not the whole workplace.

If you are unsure about what you need to do to preserve a site, ask the regulator when you notify them of the incident.

You can also ask the regulator to be relieved of your legal obligations to preserve the incident site at this point—even if you don’t meet the strict criteria above.

Upgrading Notifications

If a notifiable incident escalates from a serious illness or injury to a death the regulator must be separately notified of the death immediately after becoming aware that the person has died.

Record Keeping Requirements

The notifier must keep a record of the notifiable incident for at least five years from the date of notification. Penalties apply for failing to do so.

As a practical matter these records should include any directions or authorisations given by an inspector at the time of notification (including authorisations to disturb incident sites) and any confirmation you received from the regulator that you notified them about the incident.

Contact Details for Regulators

To notify a ‘notifiable incident’ contact the regulator in the relevant jurisdiction (see table below).

For further information on notifiable incidents including the relevant laws please contact your work health and safety regulator.

References

• Safe Work Australia
• State/Territory Workplace Health and Safety Regulations