Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00405:body:0:p2
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00405
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 2571–5331

particular issues and do not cover all hazards or risks that may arise. The health and safety duties require duty holders to consider all risks associated with work, not only those for which regulations and codes of practice exist.
Codes of practice are admissible in court proceedings under the WHS Act and Regulations. Courts may regard a code of practice as evidence of what is known about a hazard, risk or control and may rely on the code in determining what is reasonably practicable in the circumstances to which the code relates.
Compliance with the WHS Act and Regulations may be achieved by following another method, such as a technical or an industry standard, if it provides an equivalent or higher standard of work health and safety than the code.
An inspector may refer to an approved code of practice when issuing an improvement or prohibition notice.

This Code of Practice has been developed by Safe Work Australia as a model code of practice under the Council of Australian Governments' Inter-Governmental Agreement for Regulatory and Operational Reform in Occupational Health and Safety for adoption by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments.
A draft of this Code of Practice was released for public consultation on 7 December 2010
and was endorsed by the Workplace Relations Ministers' Council on 10 August 2011.

Scope and application
This Code provides practical guidance on how to meet the requirements under the WHS Regulations in relation to work carried out in a confined space. It applies to persons conducting a business or undertaking who have management or control of a confined space, and to designers, manufacturers or suppliers of plant or structures that include, or are intended to include, a confined space.

This Code will help determine when a space is a 'confined space' for the purposes of the WHS Regulations, what the potential hazards are and how to eliminate or minimise the risks when carrying out work in a confined space.
This Code can also be used by workers and their health and safety representatives interested
in understanding the hazards and risks associated with confined spaces.

How to use this Code of Practice
In providing guidance, the word 'should' is used in this Code to indicate a recommended course of action, while 'may' is used to indicate an optional course of action.
This Code also includes various references to provisions of the WHS Act and Regulations which set out the legal requirements. These references are not exhaustive. The words 'must', 'requires' or 'mandatory' indicate that a legal requirement exists and must be complied with.

1. INTRODUCTION

Confined spaces pose dangers because they are usually not designed to be areas where people work. Confined spaces often