How the Department operates
The Department has a network of 14 regional offices.
It has trained and warranted health and safety inspectors whose job it is to help improve safety at work through:
- providing information
- providing education
- checking compliance
- using the variety of enforcement tools available to ensure compliance when it can't be achieved by information or education.
It also has specialists such as doctors, nurses, scientists, engineers, and hygienists, to supplement the expertise of the inspectors.
The Department seeks to build on and use the expertise, experience, and contacts of various sectoral organisations and unions to reach out into the workplaces of NZ for maximum impact. To that end The Department develops and publishes various material including Codes of Practice, Best Practice Guides, and other information. Reference to relevant material can be found on the our website.
The Department also encourages those other organisations and unions to develop their own specialist material to drive safety in their sectors.
The Department seeks to achieve consistency of approach by having national operating strategies and policies and operating training for its field staff at a national level.
