Are Your WHS Documents Actually Compliant with NSW Codes of Practice?
Most businesses have policies, procedures, risk assessments and management system documents in place. The harder question is whether those documents still reflect what NSW work health and safety requirements actually expect.
A procedure may have been written several years ago, a risk assessment may still reference outdated requirements. A policy may contain the right headings but miss specific responsibilities, consultation requirements or control measures that now appear in an applicable Code of Practice.
From 1 July 2026, this matters even more. Changes to the NSW Work Health and Safety Act mean a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must comply with an approved Code of Practice that applies to the hazards and risks associated with their work, or manage the risk using another approach that provides an equivalent or higher standard of health and safety.
That changes the conversation from:
“Do we have a procedure?”
to:
“Can we demonstrate that our procedure reflects the standard expected by the relevant Code of Practice?”
Codes of Practice are more than guidance
NSW Codes of Practice provide practical information about how businesses can meet the standards required under WHS legislation. They are also legally significant.
Approved Codes of Practice can be referred to by inspectors when issuing improvement or prohibition notices and are admissible in court proceedings. A court may consider a Code when determining what was known about a hazard or risk and what was reasonably practicable in the circumstances.
There are now Codes covering a broad range of workplace risks including:
psychosocial hazards
hazardous manual tasks
electrical risks
plant
confined spaces
falls
noise
hazardous chemicals
consultation and cooperation
fatigue
silica
construction work
healthcare and social assistance
first aid.
SafeWork NSW continues to introduce and update Codes, with a number of new or revised Codes commencing during 2025 and 2026. For businesses, that creates another challenge. Your safety management system may not automatically change when the regulatory environment does.
The compliance gap is often in the documents
One of the most common weaknesses I see in safety management systems is not necessarily an absence of documentation, it is documentation that has not kept pace with the requirements applying to the business.
A business may have a procedure for working at heights, for example, but that does not automatically mean the procedure addresses everything expected under the relevant Code of Practice.
The same applies to psychosocial hazards, electrical risks, hazardous chemicals, plant, consultation and many other areas of WHS.
Document reviews should therefore consider questions such as:
Does the document identify the relevant duties and responsibilities?
Are the required risk management steps included?
Are appropriate control measures addressed?
Does the document reflect consultation requirements?
Are review and monitoring requirements clear?
Does the procedure align with the terminology and expectations contained in the applicable Code?
Are legislative and Code references still current?
Having a document is not the same as being able to demonstrate that the document is adequate.
Manual compliance reviews take time
Traditionally, reviewing a WHS procedure against a Code of Practice means opening the Code, working through it section by section and comparing those requirements against the organisation's document. For one procedure, that may be manageable. Across an entire safety management system, it can become a substantial exercise.
Consider how many documents a typical business may have covering areas such as:
risk management, consultation, incident management, emergency response, plant, electrical safety, contractors, working at heights, hazardous chemicals, psychosocial hazards, manual handling and training.
Each document needs to remain relevant to the organisation's work while also reflecting current legislative and regulatory expectations.
That is exactly why we have developed a new WHS Document Audit Tool.
Audit your WHS documents against NSW Codes of Practice
The Orana Skills Centre WHS Document Audit Tool is designed to make document review significantly faster. You upload your management system document and select the relevant NSW Code of Practice.
The tool then conducts a detailed review and produces an audit report identifying potential gaps, weaknesses and improvement opportunities.
Rather than simply producing a score, the audit explains what has been identified and provides recommendations that can be considered when reviewing the document.
The process is designed to help businesses answer a much more useful question:
“What do we need to improve?”
From finding the gap to improving the document
Identifying a problem is only useful if you can do something with it. Once the audit is complete, users can review the findings and choose which recommendations they want to accept. The document can then be updated using the accepted recommendations.
This means the process can move from:
Upload → Audit → Review findings → Accept recommendations → Improve document
rather than leaving businesses with another audit report that sits in a folder.
A compliance tool, not a replacement for professional judgement
There is an important distinction here. No automated tool should be treated as a guarantee that a business is legally compliant. A document can be well written and still fail in practice if workers are not trained, controls are not implemented, consultation does not occur or the procedures are simply not followed.
Compliance also depends on the specific workplace, hazards, operations and circumstances of the organisation.
The purpose of the audit tool is therefore to provide a structured document assurance process.
It helps identify whether the content of a document appears to address relevant Code of Practice requirements and where additional review may be required.
The business still needs to ensure that what is written reflects what actually happens in the workplace.
And arguably, that is where the most valuable assurance question sits:
Does our documented system match our actual system?
Start with one document
You do not need to review your entire safety management system at once. Start with one higher-risk area.
Upload your procedure.
Run it against the relevant NSW Code of Practice.
Look at the findings.
You may discover that your document is in good shape. You may also find requirements you did not realise were missing. Either way, you will have a much clearer understanding of where the document stands.
The first audit is free. After that, individual document audits are $65, or businesses can access unlimited audits for $250 per month.
You can try the WHS Document Audit Tool at:
Are Your WHS Documents Actually Compliant with NSW Codes of Practice? Because in 2026, having a WHS document is no longer the interesting question. The question is whether you can demonstrate that it meets the standard expected of your business.
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