The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 talks about ‘reasonably practicable’. These are the steps required to manage hazards and risks.
The definition of reasonably practicable is:
(a) How likely is it that harm will occur?
(b) How severe can the harm be?
(c) What you know, or ought reasonably to know, about –
i. The hazard or risk; and
ii. Ways of eliminating or minimising the risk
(d) The availability and suitability of ways to eliminate or minimise the risk
(e) The cost associated with available ways of eliminating or minimising the risk, including whether the cost is grossly disproportionate to the risk.
Part (c) is essential. It refers to what the person knows or ought reasonably to know. Ignorance is no excuse. For example, a person who buys a going concern but has no experience in that type of business is still expected to know the hazards, risks and controls.
Reasonably practicable means you don’t have to do everything humanly possible; you do what is suitable in the circumstances to try to eliminate the risk. If the risk can’t be eliminated, then you minimise it. Just because something is possible doesn’t mean it is reasonably practicable under the circumstances.
If you follow industry standards or commonly accepted guidelines for carrying out a task (e.g. common controls), then it’s likely you are already taking suitable actions to ensure health and safety. Where these are available, WorkSafe expects people to follow them under most circumstances (WorkSafe NZ, 2016).
Cost is an important variable. It does not enable you to ignore a hazard or risk because you consider the cost too expensive or more than you want to spend. You must consider the level of risk in relation to the cost. It is not necessary to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a minor risk such as lifting a box of paper. However, lifting a pallet of goods is a much higher risk and will require a greater spend.
It also recognises that different sizes of business have different financial abilities: a large workshop may have an extraction system while a one-man workshop will open the roller door and, maybe, use a fan.
