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Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

Enforcement and other matters - Inspectors and health and safety medical practitioners - Inspectors

170: Power to deal with cause of imminent danger

You could also call this:

“Inspector can remove or destroy dangerous items at work to prevent immediate harm”

If an inspector visits a workplace and thinks something there could quickly cause death, serious injury, illness, or a big incident, they can take action. This could be things like materials, substances, structures, or other items that are faulty or dangerous.

The inspector can take the dangerous thing away, destroy it, or do something else to make it less dangerous. They’re allowed to do this to keep people safe.

Before the inspector does anything, they should try to take a sample of the dangerous thing if they can. After they’ve dealt with the danger, they need to write a note to the person in charge of the workplace. This note will explain what the inspector did to fix the problem.

The inspector can enter the workplace under section 168 or 169 of this law. These sections give the inspector permission to go into workplaces to check for safety issues.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM5977154.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Workplace safety
Work and jobs > Worker rights
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171: Notice of entry, or

“Inspectors must leave a note with their details if no one is available at the workplace”

Part 4 Enforcement and other matters
Inspectors and health and safety medical practitioners: Inspectors

170Power to deal with cause of imminent danger

  1. This section applies if an inspector who enters a workplace under section 168 or 169 reasonably believes that any material, substance, structure, or thing in a workplace is defective or hazardous to a degree that it is likely to imminently cause death or serious injury or illness or a notifiable incident (cause of imminent danger).

  2. The inspector may seize, destroy, or take any other action to reduce or remove the cause of imminent danger.

  3. The inspector must,—

  4. before exercising the power under subsection (2), if it is practicable to do so, take a sample of the cause of imminent danger:
    1. as soon as practicable after exercising the power under subsection (2), give the PCBU written notice of the action taken in relation to the cause of imminent danger.

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