Health & Safety Legal Compliance Audits

How long does a legal compliance audit take?

This depends on the size and complexity of your operation. A single-site audit is typically completed within a few days, including reporting.

Do you only assess against the OHS Act?

No. We assess against the OHS Act and its regulations, plus any other legislation relevant to your sector, for example environmental or mining-specific legislation where applicable.

Will the audit tell us what to actually do, or just what's wrong?

Both. Every finding in our report is paired with a practical, prioritised corrective action, not just a list of gaps.

What specific regulations do you assess against?

At minimum, the OHS Act 85 of 1993 and the regulations under it that apply to your operation — including the General Safety Regulations, General Administrative Regulations, Construction Regulations 2014, Driven Machinery Regulations, Pressure Equipment Regulations, Electrical Installation Regulations 2009, the Regulations for Hazardous Chemical Agents 2021, the Noise Exposure Regulations 2024 (in force since 6 September 2026, replacing the 2003 Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations) and the Physical Agents Regulations 2024. For mining operations we assess against the MHSA 29 of 1996. For environmental exposure we reference NEMA 107 of 1998 and the National Water Act. We also check COIDA 130 of 1993 compliance for injury reporting and compensation.

How do you assess whether a legal appointment is actually functioning?

We go beyond checking that the appointment letter exists. We interview the appointee to confirm they understand their statutory duties under the specific section (e.g. Section 16(2) for the CEO's assignee, Section 17 for health and safety representatives, GMR 2(1) for the person supervising machinery), verify they have the authority and resources to discharge those duties, and check that the appointment scope matches the actual operational reality. An appointment that exists on paper but where the appointee cannot function is a non-conformance, not a compliance.

Can the audit report be used as a due-diligence defence if we're prosecuted?

A properly conducted independent compliance audit, with dated findings and a documented corrective action plan that you are actively implementing, is strong evidence of reasonable practicable steps under OHS Act Section 8. It does not immunise you from prosecution, but it demonstrates the good-faith, systematic approach that the courts and the DoEL expect. We structure our reports with that purpose in mind.

Do you assess contractor compliance under Section 37(2)?

Yes. The Section 37(2) written agreement and its implementation is a specific audit line item. We check whether the agreement exists, whether it addresses the duties listed in the General Administrative Regulations, and whether the principal employer is actually monitoring contractor compliance — not just collecting a signed document.

What inspectors actually write notices for

The findings from real inspections are rarely exotic. When the Department inspected 99 workplaces in the Overberg across finance, hospitality, iron and steel, retail and manufacturing, OHS Act adherence came in at 73%, so roughly one workplace in four had gaps. The notices were for basics: no risk assessment documents, no inventory of asbestos-containing material, no trained first aiders, no eating areas or lockers, no PPE, electrical and gas installations without certificates, and equipment that had not been serviced.

The national numbers show the same pattern. Of 310,798 inspections in 2024/25, about one employer in four was non-compliant with labour legislation, and 99.2% of them received an enforcement notice within 14 days. An inspection is not a friendly warning; the paperwork follows almost immediately.

Why 2026 is the year to update your legal register

A legal register that was accurate in 2023 is probably out of date. The Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024 replaced the 2003 noise regulations on 6 September 2026, bringing a new action level, a Code of Practice for Audiometry and new medical screening rules. The Physical Agents Regulations, 2024 were gazetted alongside them in March 2025. The Regulations for Hazardous Chemical Agents, 2021 changed who may do air monitoring and how often. On the compensation side, amended COIDA regulations to implement the 2022 Amendment Act were gazetted in March 2026.

An audit checks your practice against the law as it stands today, not the version in the template your safety file was built from.

Paper compliance versus working compliance

Most of our findings are not missing documents but documents that no longer match reality: a Section 16(2) assignment signed by a manager who has left, health and safety representatives designated for a headcount that has since doubled, or a Section 37(2) agreement with a contractor who has quietly subcontracted the work. A good audit interviews appointees, walks the floor and samples records, because that is the only way to know whether your system would hold up when an inspector starts asking people questions instead of paging through files.

Audit or inspection: who do you want to find the gaps?

An independent audit finds the same gaps an inspector would, but on your timeline and without a notice attached. It also creates a dated record that you identified risks and acted on them, which is what doing what is reasonably practicable looks like when an incident is investigated. For businesses in sectors the Department keeps targeting, including construction, retail, manufacturing and hospitality, the case for auditing before the next blitz is straightforward.