Changes to Western Australia’s Dangerous Goods regieme

From 5 February significant changes to Western Australia’s Dangerous Goods regulation came into effect.

One interesting and important change is that most duty holders will be able to conduct a compliance check against the applicable Codes of Practice instead of conducting a separate risk assessment for storing and handling dangerous goods.

For example, a new provision in relation to Dangerous Goods Sites states:

in making a risk assessment of the dangerous goods stored or handled at a site the operator of the site may make a judgment in relation to the assessment of the risk posed by a hazard and the risk control measures for the hazard by reference to compliance with a code of practice approved under section 20 of the Act [my emphasis added]

Information about the changes can be found here and details about the changes are set out in the Western Australian Government Gazette here.

There are more than 50 amendments that will need to be considered by organisations whose business involves the use and management of dangerous goods.