Preparing a safe work method statement before high risk construction work starts is only half the job. The document has to stay true to the work – and sites change. Plant gets swapped, another trade moves into your area, the weather turns, a control that looked fine on paper does not work in practice. The model WHS Regulations deal with this directly: the SWMS must be reviewed, and revised where necessary, when specific triggers occur. This guide covers what those triggers are, what they look like on site, and how to handle the paperwork.
Under regulation 302 of the model WHS Regulations, a PCBU must ensure a SWMS is reviewed – and revised as necessary – if the relevant control measures are revised under regulation 38. In other words, the SWMS review duty is tied to the review of the control measures inside it: when the controls change, the document must catch up. There is no fixed calendar interval in the regulations – no “every six months” rule. Review is trigger-based, and the triggers live in regulation 38. If you are still working out which document your job needs in the first place, start with our SWMS vs JSA vs SOP guide.
Regulation 38 requires control measures to be reviewed, and revised if necessary, in five situations. Each one flows through to the SWMS that contains those controls.
If a control measure does not control the risk it was put in place to control, it must be reviewed. In plain terms: if the thing you wrote down to keep people safe is not actually keeping people safe, the SWMS behind it is due for a look.
A review is required before a change at the workplace that is likely to give rise to a new or different risk the existing control may not effectively manage. A “change” here includes a change to the workplace itself, the work environment, or a system of work, process or procedure – so it covers far more than physically moving site.
If a relevant hazard or risk is spotted that the SWMS does not deal with, the controls – and the document – must be reviewed to take it in.
If the results of consultation with your workers indicate a review is necessary, that is a legal trigger in itself. The crew saying “this isn’t how the job actually works” is not a complaint to manage – it is a review trigger.
An HSR can request a review of a control measure, and that request obliges you to carry one out. Treat it with the same weight as the other four.
The triggers sound abstract until you map them onto a normal week on the tools. Any of these should make you reach for the SWMS:
None of these automatically means rewriting the whole document. The duty is to review the SWMS against the new situation and revise where necessary. Sometimes the controls still hold – the point is that someone actually checked.
The review duty sits with the PCBU carrying out the high risk construction work – in practice, the business whose crew is doing the job. Done properly, a review looks like this: pull up the current SWMS, walk it against the changed conditions with the workers who actually do the work (their input is not optional – consultation is built into how these duties operate), revise the steps and controls that no longer match, and date the new version.
Then close the loop. Give the principal contractor the updated copy so the site’s records match yours, re-brief the crew on what changed, and have them sign on to the revised version before work continues. A short, focused toolbox talk is the natural way to walk the crew through the changes and capture that re-brief in writing.
Regulation 303 of the model WHS Regulations requires the SWMS to be kept and available for inspection until the high risk construction work is completed – and if a notifiable incident occurs in connection with that work, the SWMS must be kept for at least two years from the incident. Safe Work Australia’s Code of Practice guidance adds that if a SWMS is revised, all versions should be kept – that is guidance rather than a regulation, but it is what an inspector will expect to see from a well-run business.
Make it easy on yourself: date every revision, give it a version number, and keep the superseded versions together with the current one. When an inspector visits, the paper trail is part of what they check – our guide on what SafeWork NSW inspectors look for on site covers how your documents and your actual site conditions get compared side by side.
No. The model WHS Regulations set no fixed review interval for a SWMS – the duty is entirely trigger-based. That said, many principal contractors impose their own review points through their WHS management plans, such as reviewing all SWMS at each new stage of the project or at set intervals. Those are contractual requirements, so check what your contract and the site rules say. One more note on jurisdiction: the states and territories have adopted the model regulations with some local variation, and Victoria operates under its own OHS laws – so confirm the position for the state you are working in.
Do I need a new SWMS for every job?
Not necessarily a new one from scratch – but the SWMS must reflect the actual work,
site and conditions. Reusing a SWMS at a new site is only sound after you have reviewed it
against that site’s conditions and revised anything that does not match.
Does a near miss mean I have to review my SWMS?
If the near miss shows a control measure did not control the risk it was meant to, that is a
review trigger under regulation 38 – and the SWMS containing that control must be
reviewed under regulation 302. Even where the link is less direct, a near miss is exactly the
kind of new information a sensible review takes in.
Do workers need to re-sign after a revision?
The regulations do not spell out a re-signing step, but workers must be briefed on the
revised controls before continuing the work, and having them sign the new version is the
standard way to evidence that. Most principal contractors require it, so treat re-signing as
the default.
Can I mark up changes by hand on site?
A hand-marked change is better than an unrecorded one, and it can be a legitimate way to
capture a revision in the moment. Make sure the markup is dated, initialled and legible, brief
the crew on it, and fold it into a properly reissued version promptly. Check the principal
contractor’s requirements – some sites insist on formally reissued documents
only.
Reviews are quick when the document is digital. Regenerate or edit your SWMS as conditions change, keep every dated version together, and re-issue for sign-on in minutes – alongside the rest of your WHS documents.
Start with the SWMS generator and make the next review a ten-minute job instead of a night at the kitchen table.
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