A report from the New South Wales Resources Regulator has found reports of safety incidents have decreased across the state.
The ‘Quarterly safety report – October to December 2024’ has been released with the aim of better informing industry of the state of play so they can review safety management systems and undertake risk assessments at their sites accordingly.
The report details safety incidents and trends relating to hazard management, in addition to sector specific information.
Coming from a high-hazard regulator, the report’s focus is on compliance with legislative requirements associated with principal and other high-risk hazards.
‘Roads or other vehicle operating areas’, ‘fires or explosion’ and ‘air quality or dusts and other airborne contaminants’ are hazards that feature regularly in incident notifications to the Regulator.
In this quarter, there were a total of 551 incident notifications received – a six per cent decrease from the previous quarter and a four per cent decrease from the same period in the 2023–24 financial year (FY2024).
Incident notifications decreased for coal mines (six per cent) and large mines (16 per cent) compared to the previous quarter.
Assessments decreased by 26 per cent overall this quarter from 916 to 677. Decreases were seen in every sector and reporting nature.
Safety notices decreased this quarter from 779 to 494 (37 per cent). This was predominantly led by a decrease in s191 improvement notices issued (from 528 to 344).
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