Health and safety reform

A range of legislative, operational, and regulatory changes will be made to transform performance across the system.

These changes will ensure businesses know what to do to comply with the laws and regulations.

Read the Minister’s announcement:

Going for growth: cutting health and safety red tape(external link) — beehive.govt.nz

Milestone health and safety bill passes first reading(external link) — beehive.govt.nz

About the work health and safety regulatory system 

The work health and safety regulatory system is made up of the:

• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 
• supporting regulations, safe work instruments, standards, approved codes of practice, and guidance that sit under the HSW Act
• regulators that implement the law and support people to comply through engagement, enforcement, and clear standards
• people and organisations authorised by the regulator or regulations to certify or licence businesses for high-risk work and activities.

About the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill

The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill is being considered by Parliament. This Bill is part of the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon Brooke van Velden’s reform of New Zealand’s health and safety system.

The Bill will make legislative changes to the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, the WorkSafe New Zealand Act 2013 and the Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016.

The objectives of the Bill are to:

• reduce unnecessary compliance costs
• increase certainty for businesses and organisations about what they need to do to comply
• support continued reductions in the incidence of workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses.

To achieve these objectives, the Bill:

1. Focuses the system on critical risk, by:

• sharpening the purpose of the Health and Safety at Work Act to focus the actions of businesses on managing critical risks.
• aligning WorkSafe’s (the regulator) main objective, so they also focus on how businesses are managing their critical risks and supports them to do so.
• defining ‘critical risk’
• clarifying health and safety duties for small PCBUs and other PCBUs in relation to critical risk
• defining a ‘small PCBU’.

2. Clarifies areas of confusion, by:

• sharpening coverage of the Health and Safety at Work Act where there is overlap with other legislation, including when managing seismic risk in work buildings
• clarifying PCBU duties regarding recreational use of land
• clarifying the officer’s due diligence duty
• clarifying the types of serious injury, illness or event that require notifying the regulator.

3. Creates greater certainty for duty holders through strengthening Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs), by:

• strengthening the ‘safe harbour’ status of Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs), to make clear that in following an ACOP for a specific risk, duty holders are deemed to have met their duty for managing that risk
• enabling people and groups to develop and submit draft ACOPs to the regulator.

4. Prioritises the regulators’ powers and functions, by:

• aligning the functions of WorkSafe and the other designated regulators.

You can have your say on the proposed changes during the Select Committee process. Use the link below to access the submission process:

Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill(external link) — New Zealand Parliament

Public consultation

In June 2024, MBIE supported the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety to undertake substantial consultation on work health and safety with a roadshow across the regions and a discussion document and submission form on the MBIE website. The point of the consultation was to ask New Zealanders about what’s working well and what needs to change.

The consultation ended on 31 October 2024, with over 1000 people having their say. A major theme of the feedback was that as it stands, businesses don’t know what they need to do to manage risks and meet their health and safety duties.

Cabinet Decisions and supporting papers

To achieve the objectives of the reform, Cabinet has made a series of decisions. The advice that informed these decisions, as well as other related papers are provided below.

In March 2025, Cabinet agreed to sharpen the purpose of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, limit the duties for small businesses, strengthen ACOPs, and to reduce the requirements for notifying the regulator. It also made decisions on areas of confusion, specifically, clarifying duties relating to recreational land use, how the HSW Act applies to officers such as directors, the interaction between the HSW Act and other legislation.

The cabinet paper and regulatory impact statement that sets out these policy decisions are below:

In April 2025, Cabinet made decisions relating to WorkSafe’s main objective and principal functions.

The cabinet paper that sets out these policy decisions is below:

In June 2025, Cabinet agreed to define a small PCBU and their limited duties, define critical risk, further clarify the HSW Act’s application to officers, and define key concepts relating to notification requirements.

The cabinet paper and regulatory impact statement that sets out these policy decisions are below:

In February 2026, Cabinet made some final technical decisions on the Bill and agreed to introduce it. This paper is below:

Proactive release of policy advice on the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill

View all policy advice documents:

Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill

Other work

As well as the legislative changes, the Minister has also asked MBIE to work on a regulatory relief package to address sector specific pain points.