Incident Reporting Software

notifiable event site preservation New Zealand

Direct answer. After a work-related event that may be notifiable under New Zealand's Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA), get people to safety and obtain urgent help first. The PCBU that manages or controls the workplace must take all reasonable steps to preserve the site until an inspector permits normal work there, subject to specific exceptions for helping an injured person, removing a deceased person, making the site safe or minimising further risk, police direction, or regulator/inspector permission. The relevant PCBU must notify the appropriate regulator as soon as possible after becoming aware of a notifiable event, using the fastest method available, and keep a record for at least five years from notification. WorkSafe: what events need to be notified.

This guide focuses on the first response and evidence trail. It does not decide whether every injury is notifiable; WorkSafe's current guide and notification tool provide the detailed thresholds. The existing NZ incident-reporting software page owns the commercial software task. A form or product workflow cannot make the legal notification or release the scene for you.

Decide whether the event falls in the notifiable category

HSWA's categories are a work-related death, a specified serious injury or illness, or a notifiable incident. WorkSafe explains that the event must arise from the conduct of the business or undertaking and may happen away from the ordinary site. A worker's unrelated medical event at work is not automatically a notifiable work event. Nor is every visit to an emergency department the same as an inpatient hospital admission; WorkSafe distinguishes admission for immediate treatment from outpatient treatment. Some other serious injuries and exposures are separately specified. WorkSafe: what events need to be notified.

When the facts are unclear, do not delay immediate protection while people debate a classification. Gather the known facts, use the regulator's current tool or contact route, and escalate to a competent manager or adviser. Record when the PCBU became aware, what was known, and why a notification decision was made. A “near miss” can be notifiable if it meets the specified serious-incident test even though nobody was hurt. Conversely, a minor injury may require internal recording and follow-up without meeting the statutory notification threshold.

Check which regulator has jurisdiction. WorkSafe is not the regulator for all New Zealand work. Its guide identifies Maritime New Zealand for ships and shipboard workplaces, including major ports from 1 July 2024, and the Civil Aviation Authority for specified aviation work. Special regulations can create additional notification duties for activities such as asbestos removal, major-hazard facilities, mining or adventure activities. WorkSafe notification guide. A generic instruction to “always notify WorkSafe” is therefore unreliable.

Preserve the site without compromising immediate safety

The preservation duty applies to the PCBU that manages or controls the workplace. WorkSafe says to keep the work set-up unchanged, leave involved plant and substances where they are, stop work that would interfere with the scene, and avoid altering involved plant, vehicles or structures until an inspector permits normal work at the site. Other parts of the workplace may continue if they do not interfere. WorkSafe notification guide.

Preservation is not a direction to leave someone in danger. The exceptions allow disturbance to help an injured person, remove a deceased person, make the site safe or minimise the risk of a further notifiable event, follow police direction, or act with regulator/inspector permission. Record what was moved, why, by whom and when. If safe and appropriate, take photographs or notes before essential safety changes, but never delay rescue for documentation. Maintain access control so an uninformed colleague does not restart plant or tidy away evidence.

For example, if a machine traps a worker, isolating power and moving a guard to release the person can be necessary. Once the person is safe and any further danger is controlled, leave the remaining set-up undisturbed. The manager should record the rescue changes, secure the area and obtain the inspector's permission before restoring normal operation in the affected part. This is an illustration of the principle, not a substitute for the specific emergency assessment.

Notify as soon as possible and keep proof

WorkSafe says the regulator must be notified as soon as possible after awareness, by the fastest means possible in the circumstances. Where multiple PCBUs are involved, they may nominate one to notify, but all remain responsible for ensuring notification occurs. Do not assume a principal contractor, client or agency has done it unless you confirm and record the notification. Capture the time, regulator, method, person who notified, event details supplied, acknowledgement or reference and any inspector instructions. WorkSafe notification guide.

For a work-related death, WorkSafe's current contact guidance says notify it immediately by phone; in an emergency call 111. Use the current official route for the actual event and sector rather than copying an old number from a template. A product-generated email or internal incident report is not necessarily a notification to the regulator.

WorkSafe states that the PCBU must keep a notifiable-event record for at least five years from the date the regulator was notified. Keep enough to explain the event, notification decision, site preservation, permitted changes, instructions received and corrective actions. Control access to personal and medical information. The retention period for a different document or sector-specific law may be longer; this page does not claim five years is a universal ceiling.

Coordinate when several PCBUs share the workplace

Construction and contracted workplaces often involve a site controller, employer, principal contractor and specialist subcontractor. Establish who manages or controls the scene, who is arranging emergency services, and who will notify the correct regulator. WorkSafe says one PCBU can be nominated to notify, but responsibility for ensuring it happens remains with each involved PCBU. Share the notification reference and inspector instructions. Do not let separate teams remove evidence while another waits for the regulator. WorkSafe notification guide; WorkSafe: PCBUs working together.

Record who received instructions from the inspector and what the inspector allowed. Permission to resume work in one unaffected area is not necessarily permission to alter the event scene. Where a police or other regulator investigation is also involved, coordinate the directions rather than assuming one body's instruction replaces the other.

Separate regulator response from learning and corrective action

WorkSafe notes that HSWA does not itself explicitly require every notifiable event to be investigated, although investigation and prevention work are good practice; some sector regulations do impose specific investigation duties. Once it is permissible to examine the scene, determine what happened, whether risk controls failed, what must change and who verifies the change. Do not let an early blame narrative or a completed form close a serious risk. WorkSafe notification guide.

An internal review should preserve original evidence, distinguish witness accounts from findings, and consider process, equipment, supervision, training and contractor coordination. Assign corrective actions with owners and due dates, then verify that the control works. If the finding affects other sites, share it without disclosing unnecessary personal information. Reassess relevant hazards before restarting the activity.

A first-hour checklist

Call emergency services and provide first aid or rescue within safe competence.
Stop and isolate any continuing danger; protect others from entering the scene.
Preserve the event site, allowing only the statutory exceptions or an inspector's direction.
Identify the likely regulator and test the current notifiable-event criteria.
Notify as soon as possible by the fastest available route if the event is notifiable.
Record the facts, times, necessary scene changes, notification acknowledgement and instructions.
Coordinate all involved PCBUs and brief workers not to disturb the affected area.
Obtain the relevant permission before normal work resumes at the event site.
Investigate and close prevention actions when it is safe and permitted to do so.

This sequence is a practical aid; it does not override rescue, emergency-service instructions or a regulator's directions.

Common mistakes

Treating every emergency-department visit as an inpatient admission, or dismissing a serious notifiable incident because nobody was injured.
Tidying, repairing or restarting involved equipment before site release.
Believing one contracted PCBU's promise to notify discharges everyone else's responsibility.
Filing an internal incident form but never notifying the external regulator.
Treating the five-year record rule as a reason to discard other records with longer retention duties.
Assuming all New Zealand sectors report to WorkSafe.

Complys and the next step

The existing New Zealand incident-reporting software page is a possible route for reviewing how an organisation captures internal event and action records. This article makes no claim that Complys determines notifiability, notifies WorkSafe or another regulator, preserves a physical site, or authorises restart. Those tasks remain with the PCBUs and competent people. A useful next step is to test your actual escalation list against one plausible serious event: who secures the scene, who calls which regulator and where is the acknowledgement retained?

Primary sources

For the related Complys product, see Incident Reporting Software. This guide is general information, not legal advice; verify current requirements against the official sources linked above.