Industry welcomes construction ACOP but raises concerns

Site Safe and the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management have supported clearer guidance on residential construction health and safety responsibilities, while raising concerns about small business provisions, potential legal protections and the treatment of designers

Industry representatives have welcomed the new residential construction Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) as a step towards clearer site responsibilities but said questions remain about how parts of the new health and safety framework will work in practice. The Government says the ACOP was developed with sector input to reflect construction practice.

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden launched the ACOP on 16 October. It will take effect on 1 April 2027, alongside amendments to the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill was passed on 1 July 2026 as part of the Government’s wider health and safety reforms. The changes come into effect on 1 April 2027.

The Bill aims to focus the health and safety system on critical risk so that businesses and organisations are clear about the most important things to prioritise.

The ACOP identifies health and safety roles and responsibilities on a residential construction site, focusing on situations where businesses have overlapping health and safety duties. It explains consultation, cooperation and coordination, and includes examples and flowcharts to help residential landowners, homeowners and occupiers understand their roles.

Site Safe Group Manager – Products & Customer Experience Andrew Confait said the residential construction ACOP provided practical guidance which is needed to help businesses make decisions in complex working environments.

“For an industry where work is dynamic, complex and time-critical, unclear expectations don’t just create frustration, they create risk.”

Clarifying responsibilities

Confait said residential projects involved multiple parties whose responsibilities needed to be understood before and during construction.

“When roles and responsibilities are not clear, things can get missed. Assumptions get made. People may think someone else is managing a risk when, in reality, it has been left uncontrolled.”

However, he raised concerns about the implications of different requirements for small businesses after recent changes to the Act, whereby small businesses (fewer than 20 workers) are required to manage critical risks ahead of other risks.

“It is important to acknowledge that roles and responsibilities are not always easy to define in practice, particularly while questions remain around the carve-out for small PCBUs and the two-tier system that creates.”

NZISM Construction Forum Lead Darach Cassidy said the organisation had contributed to the Code’s development through its Construction Sector Forum, with WorkSafe coordinating consultation involving residential sector stakeholders.

“Although we have reservations that remain unresolved relating to the small business carve out, the potential future status of the ACOP as a legal ‘safe harbour’, and the absence of roles and responsibilities relating to upstream designers, we believe the ACOP is a good first step towards providing better guidance for residential construction.

“We will remain actively involved with future iterations which we anticipate will strengthen the ACOP over time.”

WorkSafe Chief Executive Sharon Thompson said the ACOP clarified duties rather than creating new ones. WorkSafe said it had been designed for a sector containing many small and medium-sized businesses without dedicated health and safety specialists.

The residential construction ACOP is voluntary. WorkSafe said businesses could meet their duties through other methods if these achieved at least the standard described in the ACOP.

Safe harbour requires further approval

The Government said the Code could be granted safe harbour status after 1 April 2027. This would mean taking the actions set out within it could provide sufficient evidence that a business or worker had met the relevant legal duty.

However, that status would require further consultation and ministerial reapproval.

Confait said Site Safe’s involvement in WorkSafe’s industry working group had focused on making the ACOP useful for those applying it on active work sites.

“Site Safe’s role is to help ensure guidance is clear, workable and useful for the people who will actually need to apply it,” said Confait.

He added the practical effect of the ACOP would be central to its success.

“Good guidance should make the job clearer, not harder. And, in construction, clarity is one of the most practical safety tools we have.”