The Occupational Safety and Health Regulations 1996 have the effect of spelling out specific requirements of the legislation.

Regulations may prescribe minimum standards and have a general application, or they may define specific requirements related to a particular hazard or particular type of work. They may also allow for licensing and granting of approvals.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 (the OSH Act), there are two types of instruments to help you meet your workplace health and safety obligations - regulations and codes of practice.

If there is a regulation about a risk, you must comply with the regulation.

If there is a code of practice about a risk, you must either: 

• do what the code says; or 
• adopt and follow another way that gives the same level of protection against the risk.

If there is no regulation of code of practice about the risk, you must choose an appropriate way and take reasonable precautions and exercise proper diligence to ensure you meet your obligations.

The Department of Justice, Parliamentary Counsel's Office provides an electronic copy of the regulations.  The Parliamentary Counsel progressively amends its documents to include any legislative changes.  This usually occurs a week or two from the time the amendments appear in the Government Gazette.  

You may download or print this legislation free of charge, however, please note that this is not a legal document and as such can not be used in a court of law.

The Occupational Safety and Health Regulations 1996 require that certain forms are used when requesting reviews of improvement and prohibition notices by the WorkSafe Western Australia Commissioner and notifying the WorkSafe Western Australia Commissioner of certain (prescribed) injuries and diseases.