08 Oct What the 2027 health and safety changes mean for your business
From 1 April 2027, health and safety changes under the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) put critical risks at the centre of how your business manages health and safety.
WorkSafe has released guidance to explain what this means. This post sums up the key points and links to each guide so you can read the detail.
Step 1: Work out if you are a small or large PCBU
Your duties depend on how many workers you have. A worker includes employees, contractors, subcontractors, labour hire staff, and regular volunteers.
- Small PCBU – fewer than 20 workers, or fewer than 20 for at least 9 months of the year if your numbers fluctuate.
- Large PCBU – 20 or more workers, or 20 or more for more than 3 months of the year if your numbers fluctuate.
A business with 12 staff for most of the year, but 22 over a busy summer period, can still be a large PCBU.
Check your numbers across the whole year, not just today.
Read WorkSafe’s guidance – Am I a small or large PCBU?
Step 2: Understand what a critical risk is
A critical risk is one that is likely to result in death, a notifiable injury, illness or incident, or a specified occupational disease.
Some risks are automatically critical because regulations already cover them, including hazardous substances, asbestos, machinery, working at height, and workplace noise.
For everything else, ask yourself this – if this went wrong with no controls in place, is it likely to cause serious harm? A deep fryer in a café is a critical risk because of the risk of severe burns. A minor cut from opening boxes is not.
Some other points from the guidance:
- Psychosocial risks, such as fatigue and stress, can be critical if they are likely to lead to serious physical harm, like a vehicle crash.
- Musculoskeletal injuries are critical if they are likely to need hospital admission. Cumulative overuse injuries are not automatically included.
- Your critical risks can change over time, so review them regularly, especially after an incident or a change in how you work.
Read WorkSafe’s guidance – What is a critical risk?
If you are a small PCBU
Your main HSWA duties are limited to critical risks. You must:
- Identify your critical risks;
- Manage them so far as is reasonably practicable; and
- Monitor and review your controls over time.
You can choose to manage other risks, but you are not required to.
For example, a small farm would need to manage risks like machinery rollovers, working at height and hazardous substances, but not minor strains from lifting boxes.
Read WorkSafe’s guidance – Managing critical risks for small PCBUs
If you are a large PCBU
Your scope does not shrink. You must still manage all risks, but you must prioritise critical risks. That means:
- Managing critical risks before other risks;
- Reviewing controls on critical risks more often; and
- Putting a higher share of your risk management resources into critical risks.
Other risks still need managing. They come after the critical ones.
Read WorkSafe’s guidance – Prioritising critical risks for large PCBUs
What applies to every business
Worker welfare duties apply to all PCBUs, whatever your size or risk level.
So far as is reasonably practicable, you must provide toilets, drinking water, hand washing facilities, first aid, and emergency planning.
What to do before the health and safety changes start
- Count your workers across a full year to confirm whether you are a small or large PCBU.
- List your hazards. Walk the workplace, look at past incidents and near misses, and talk to your workers.
- Mark which hazards are critical. Start with any covered by regulations, then apply the “likely to cause serious harm” test to the rest.
- Check your controls on each critical risk, and fix any gaps.
- Write down your reasoning, especially for borderline calls. You can build on your existing risk assessments rather than starting again.
How Hasmate can help
Once you have identified your critical risks, you need somewhere to record them and keep them up to date. Hasmate is our health and safety software, and you can use it to keep your hazard register in one place, so it is easy to review after an incident or when your work changes.
Alerts help you stay on top of reviews and due dates, so your critical risk controls don’t get forgotten once the initial work is done.
You can try Hasmate free for 30 days, with no need to commit up front and no credit card required. If you would like a guided look first, we also offer free online demonstrations so you can see how it works for a business your size.
Start your free 30-day trial, or get in touch if you would like help working out where your critical risks sit.
This article is general guidance, not legal advice.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss.