Attachments Terms of Reference Background The Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner and the Australian Government Building and Construction OHS Accreditation Scheme (the Scheme) has been operating for seven years and while it is broadly operating as intended, the Government will undertake a review to ensure it reflects current best practice. Stakeholder feedback indicates concern with red tape, consistency, some operational arrangements and ensuring the Scheme reflects current best practice. Conduct of the Review The review will address: the costs of complying with the Scheme, including the cost of seeking and maintaining accreditation, particularly for smaller businesses/projects the suitability of current funding threshold limits applying to building work covered by the Scheme for improvements in the accreditation process to reduce red tape, including but not limited to: application and other paperwork requirements at the accreditation and reaccreditation stages scope to better target compliance effort (in particular, on-site audits) according to risk, and to increase voluntary compliance by companies extending the period of accreditation for businesses with a good audit history capacity of smaller businesses to achieve accreditation the suitability of AS/NZS 4801 as a prerequisite for the Scheme options to charge for audits. changes to the Scheme criteria and/or associated guidance material which would streamline or clarify requirements (including any updates necessary to reflect current best practice) consistency, transparency and accountability in the application of Scheme criteria by Federal Safety Officers and the Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner the process for selecting and appointing Federal Safety Officers to ensure any potential for conflict of interest is appropriately managed awareness of, and adherence by, funding entities to the Scheme requirements interaction of the Scheme with state and territory prequalification arrangements for their building and construction procurements the interaction of the Scheme with other Commonwealth procurement processes. A report on the outcome of the review will be provided to the Minister for Employment by 30 June 2014.
Attachments Terms of Reference Background The Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner and the Australian Government Building and Construction OHS Accreditation Scheme (the Scheme) has been operating for seven years and while it is broadly operating as intended, the Government will undertake a review to ensure it reflects current best practice. Stakeholder feedback indicates concern with red tape, consistency, some operational arrangements and ensuring the Scheme reflects current best practice. Conduct of the Review The review will address: the costs of complying with the Scheme, including the cost of seeking and maintaining accreditation, particularly for smaller businesses/projects the suitability of current funding threshold limits applying to building work covered by the Scheme for improvements in the accreditation process to reduce red tape, including but not limited to: application and other paperwork requirements at the accreditation and reaccreditation stages scope to better target compliance effort (in particular, on-site audits) according to risk, and to increase voluntary compliance by companies extending the period of accreditation for businesses with a good audit history capacity of smaller businesses to achieve accreditation the suitability of AS/NZS 4801 as a prerequisite for the Scheme options to charge for audits. changes to the Scheme criteria and/or associated guidance material which would streamline or clarify requirements (including any updates necessary to reflect current best practice) consistency, transparency and accountability in the application of Scheme criteria by Federal Safety Officers and the Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner the process for selecting and appointing Federal Safety Officers to ensure any potential for conflict of interest is appropriately managed awareness of, and adherence by, funding entities to the Scheme requirements interaction of the Scheme with state and territory prequalification arrangements for their building and construction procurements the interaction of the Scheme with other Commonwealth procurement processes. A report on the outcome of the review will be provided to the Minister for Employment by 30 June 2014.
Review%20Report%202014.docx