Who needs an HSWA Site Safety Plan in New Zealand?
Short answer
Any PCBU carrying out construction or trade work in New Zealand should prepare a site-specific safety plan under HSWA 2015. While not always named as such in HSWA, it is the practical document principal contractors require, and it evidences the PCBU primary duty of care under s.36.
New Zealand HSWA 2015 imposes the primary duty of care on every PCBU under s.36. While HSWA does not always use the words "Site Safety Plan", a site-specific safety document is the practical means by which a PCBU evidences that duty for construction or trade work.
In practice:
- Principal contractors / head contractors on commercial projects require every subcontractor to submit a Site Safety Plan (or Task Analysis / SSSP for smaller jobs) before they can start on site.
- The plan should reference the relevant WorkSafe NZ Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) — e.g., the Excavation ACOP, the Scaffolding ACOP, the Working at Heights ACOP, the Demolition ACOP, the Forestry ACOP (Aug 2025).
- For work that crosses HSWA notifiable-event thresholds (s.23–25), the plan should cover the site preservation (s.55) and notification (s.56) workflows.
If you are a sole trader doing residential trade work, you should still have a site-specific safety plan covering your hazards, controls and emergency arrangements — both as evidence of HSWA s.36 compliance and as required by most insurers and many homeowners.