Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00414:body:0:p2
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00414
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 2388–5181

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 for persons who have duties under the WHS Act and Regulations to manage risks to health and safety. The duty is placed on persons conducting a business or undertaking, including employers, self-employed, principal contractors, persons with management or control of a workplace, designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers of plant, substances or structures that are used for work.

This Code applies to all types of work and all workplaces covered by the WHS Act. Other approved codes of practice should be referenced for guidance on managing the risk of specific hazards.

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 sections of the WHS Act and to 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

1.1 Who has responsibility for managing work health and safety risks?
The WHS Act and Regulations require persons who have a duty to ensure health and safety to 'manage risks' by eliminating health and safety risks so far as is reasonably practicable, and if it is not reasonably practicable to do so, to minimise those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.
Persons conducting