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Water Services Act 2021

Standards, enforcement, and other matters - Criminal proceedings - Liability of certain persons

169: Liability of volunteers

You could also call this:

"What happens if volunteers make mistakes with water services"

Illustration for Water Services Act 2021

You are a volunteer if you act on a voluntary basis. You may not be charged with certain offences when acting as a volunteer. These offences include things like supplying unsafe drinking water or failing to advise consumers about a complaint process, which are listed in sections like 172, 175, 177, 188, and 192.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS374888.

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Part 3Standards, enforcement, and other matters
Criminal proceedings: Liability of certain persons

169Liability of volunteers

  1. Subsection (2) applies in a prosecution for an offence against any section listed in the following table:

    The following table is small in size and has 2 columns. Column 1 is headed Section. Column 2 is headed Description
    Section Description
    172 Negligence in supply of unsafe drinking water
    175 Negligence in failure to take immediate action when drinking water unsafe
    177 Failure to provide sufficient quantity of drinking water
    188 Failure to advise consumers about, provide, and report on complaint process
    192 Failure to comply with duty of due diligence

  2. A volunteer acting in that capacity may not be charged with an offence to which this subsection applies.

  3. In this section, volunteer means a person who is acting on a voluntary basis (whether or not the person receives out-of-pocket expenses).

Notes
  • Section 169(1): amended, on , by section 12(1) of the Water Services Acts Repeal Act 2024 (2024 No 2).