Authors: Greg Cain, Michael Hargreaves
Published: 29 March 2023
Pages: 49

Introduction

The pace of change in health and safety law continued unabated in 2022. There were a number of interesting decisions, but possibly the most significant, and certainly contentious, was the NEMA decision on the scope of the “other persons” duty in s 36(2) of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA). A number of other decisions relating to this duty demonstrate the difficulty of drawing a sensible line between situations which attract the duty and those that do not.

There were also significant liability decisions on recklessness, inspectors’ authority, reliance on earlier advice given by inspectors, and a host of sentencing decisions.

The Government is also proposing some significant legislative reform. (continued...)
 

Content outline

• Sentencing update
• Officer prosecutions
• Litigation resulting from the Whakaari eruption
• WorkSafe’s organisational focus
• Areas expected to develop in 2023
• Health and safety liability decisions
• Health and safety sentencing decisions