Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

Enforcement and other matters - Enforcement measures - Prohibition notices

105: Power to issue prohibition notice

You could also call this:

“Inspectors can stop dangerous work to prevent serious harm”

If an inspector thinks there’s a big safety problem at a workplace, they can tell people to stop doing something dangerous. This can happen in a few different ways:

The inspector might see something really risky happening right now, or think it might happen soon. They can stop it if they believe it could seriously hurt someone.

Sometimes, the inspector might notice that rules aren’t being followed in special workplaces, like mines or places that need special permission to operate. If not following these rules could seriously hurt someone, the inspector can step in.

When the inspector decides to stop something, they can tell the person in charge to stop doing it altogether, or to do it differently. This continues until the inspector is sure the danger has been fixed.

The inspector can tell people to stop verbally at first, but they must also give a written notice as soon as they can. This written notice is called a prohibition notice.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM5977057.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Workplace safety
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Previous

104: Extension of time for compliance with improvement notices, or

“Getting more time to follow an improvement notice”

Next

106: Content of prohibition notice, or

“What information is included in a prohibition notice”

Part 4 Enforcement and other matters
Enforcement measures: Prohibition notices

105Power to issue prohibition notice

  1. This section applies if,—

  2. an inspector reasonably believes that—
    1. an activity is occurring at a workplace that involves or will involve a serious risk to the health or safety of a person arising from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard; or
      1. an activity may occur at a workplace that, if it occurs, will involve a serious risk to the health or safety of a person arising from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard; or
      2. in respect of any workplace, plant, or substance, or work that is required to be authorised under subpart 2 of Part 5 or a mining operation (as defined in clause 2 of Schedule 3), an inspector—
        1. believes that there is a serious risk to the health and safety of any person because of a failure to comply with this Act or regulations; or
          1. believes on reasonable grounds that it is likely that a person will fail to comply with this Act or regulations, and that failure would be likely to cause a serious risk to the health and safety of any person.

          2. The inspector may give a person who has control over the matter or activity a direction prohibiting the carrying on of the matter or activity, or the carrying on of the matter or activity in a specified way, until an inspector is satisfied that the matter or activity that gives or will give rise to the risk has been remedied.

          3. The direction may be given orally, but must be confirmed by written notice (a prohibition notice) issued to the person as soon as practicable.

          Compare