Governance
While the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) 2015 places specific accountabilities and duties on crown entity Chief Executives as officers, and Crown Entities as Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking. Public Service Chief Executives, and other senior leaders are deemed to be officers under HSWA, with their governance accountabilities and ‘due diligence’ responsibilities.
Senior leaders within public service organisations operate within a unique context where there is a distinction between general day to day management of health and safety that senior public servants perform for the agency as managers and the governance role that they perform as officers.