Annual reporting of public sector health, safety and injury management performance

Agency resources, agencies are required to report quantitative performance data in the 2024/25 annual report, as shown in the template for 2024/2025 performance reporting, and progress in achieving the relevant targets of the National Strategic Plan for Asbestos Awareness and Management 2019-2023.

For enquiries, email publicsectorWHS@dmirs.wa.gov.au

Performance reporting

Report performance against the following targets:

Template for performance reporting

The table below will assist agencies to meet their quantitative reporting requirements and support consistency in reporting.

* The performance reporting examines a three-year trend and, as such, the comparison base year is to be two years prior to the current reporting year. 
** Comment on agency performance over the three-year period.

Qualitative requirements

While agencies may choose to report on usual qualitative measures, it is not a requirement for 2023/24. Qualitative measures include:

• a statement of the agency’s commitment to workplace health, safety and injury management, with an emphasis on executive commitment
• a description of the formal mechanism for consultation with employees on workplace health and safety matters
• a statement of compliance with injury management requirements of the Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981, including the development of return to work plans
• a statement confirming that an assessment of the workplace health and safety management system has been completed (within the past five years or sooner, depending on the risk profile of the agency) using a recognised assessment tool
• a report of the percentage of agreed actions completed following assessment of the workplace health and safety management system

Agencies may choose to provide other information such as:

• an overview of the agency’s occupational safety and health, and injury management systems — for amalgamated departments, this could include the status of systems consolidation
• new activities or initiatives for the year
• awards
• critical incidents
• prosecutions
• incident, accident and lost time injury and disease trends
• number of elected safety and health representatives trained
• frequency of Safety and Health Committee meetings.

National Strategic Plan for Asbestos Awareness and Management 2019-2023

The National Strategic Plan for Asbestos Awareness and Management 2019-2023 is consistent with the Western Australian Government policy on occupational safety and health.

On 9 November 2020, the Western Australian Government endorsed targets one to seven (targets eight and nine are Federal targets) of the National Strategic Plan for Asbestos Awareness and Management 2019-2023, which aims to eliminate asbestos-related diseases in Australia by preventing exposure to asbestos fibres.

Each State and local government department, agency, authority and government enterprise is required to report on its progress in achieving Western Australia’s targets.

Reporting progress in achieving the relevant targets of the National Strategic Plan for Asbestos Awareness and Management 2019-2023

Agencies may include an overview of activities relating to:

• identifying and assessing the risks associated with asbestos-containing material from within government owned and controlled buildings, land and infrastructure
• developing and maintaining plans for the risk-based management of asbestos-containing materials, which includes removal where required
• asbestos compliance and enforcement (such as improvement notice, prohibition notice, prosecution action etc.)
• asbestos awareness, including training, publications and guidance materials.

Agencies may choose to report on other aspects of their asbestos management strategy.

Agencies are required to report performance data in the 2024/25 annual report, as shown in the template for 2025/2026 performance reporting.

Annual reporting requirements have been updated to provide alignment with the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2023-2033. Agencies are encouraged to report against all indicators where data is available. For transitional purposes, indicators 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 are essential (consistent with previous requirements) and the remaining indicators should be reported against as soon as practicable.

For enquiries, email publicsectorWHS@demirs.wa.gov.au

Performance reporting

Report performance against the following targets (please see Explanatory Notes for further guidance):

Template for performance reporting

The table below will assist agencies to meet their reporting requirements and support consistency in reporting.

* The performance reporting examines a three-year trend and, as such, the comparison base year is to be two years prior to the current reporting year, where data is available.

Additional information

Agencies may choose to provide other information such as:

• how executive level commitment to work health and safety and injury management is demonstrated
• actions taken to progress the agency’s work aligned with the Asbestos National Strategic Plan 2024-2030 (endorsed by the WA Government in 2024), such as updating asbestos registers or proactive removal of asbestos containing materials based on risk
• an overview of the agency’s work health and safety, and injury management systems
• new activities or initiatives for the year
• awards
• critical incidents
• prosecutions
• incident and/or lost time injury and disease trends
• frequency of Safety and Health Committee meetings.

Explanatory notes for annual reporting indicators

1. Fatalities

The definition is aligned with that of the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2023-2033.

Traumatic injury fatalities involve a death directly resulting from physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress.

It specifically excludes fatalities due to:

• natural causes – including heart attacks and strokes – where death is a natural progression from a disease and cannot be directly linked to a work-related injury or activity
• complications of medical care, medical negligence or malpractice
• suicide
• undertaking criminal activities
• commuting to or from work.

2. Incidence of work-related injury or illness

Occupational Injuries are defined as all employment-related injuries that are the result of a single traumatic event occurring while a person is on duty or during a recess period and where there was a short or non-existent latency period. This includes injuries which are the result of a single exposure to an agent(s) causing an acute toxic effect.

Illness is defined equivalently to the Occupational Disease definition provided by SWA.

Occupational Diseases are defined as all employment-related diseases that result from repeated or long-term exposure to an agent(s) or event(s) or that are the result of a single traumatic event where there was a long latency period (e.g. the development of hepatitis following a single exposure to the infection).

Consistent with the SWA definitions, the scope has been determined as all new cases (claims) reported in the reference year, for which liability was either accepted or rejected, or a decision on liability is pending. Claims that were subsequently withdrawn by the claimant or disallowed on the basis of not being within the scope of the scheme are excluded.

Injuries or illnesses that do not involve a workers compensation claim are excluded.

Incidence rate is the number of claims divided by the FTE count for the financial year (as reported by the agency in the Self Insurance Risk Declaration, SIRD), multiplied by 1,000.

3. Incidence rate of serious claims with one or more weeks’ lost time

A serious claim is an accepted workers’ compensation claim that involves one or more weeks of time lost and excludes all fatalities, and excludes all injuries experienced while travelling to or from work or while on a break away from the workplace.

Time lost from work is measured in working weeks and excludes estimates of future absences. Time lost from work comprises the total period for which weekly benefits were paid. The reported time lost is not necessarily continuous and may occur over several separate periods. Where an employee returns to work on a part-time basis, they may continue to receive pro-rata weekly benefit payments in addition to the income they would ordinarily receive for the hours worked.

Incidence rate is the number of serious claims divided by the FTE count for the financial year (as reported by the agency in the Self Insurance Risk Declaration SIRD), multiplied by 1,000.

Examples: A week is calculated in terms of the employee’s normal week. For a full time worker that would normally be 5 days. If the worker normally works a three day week, and they are off work for the three days, that counts as a week of lost time.

4. Incidence rate of claims resulting in permanent impairment

‘Permanent impairment’ means a permanent impairment classified and assessed in accordance with the Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023.

It is the approved permanent impairment assessor (APIA) who determines the percentage of impairment in accordance with the Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023.

Incidence rate is the number of claims resulting in a permanent impairment in the reporting financial year (irrespective of the financial year the injury occurred) divided by the FTE count for the financial year (as reported by the agency in the Self Insurance Risk Declaration, SIRD), multiplied by 1,000.

5. Incidence rate of work-related respiratory disease

Respiratory disease includes claims classified as affecting the respiratory system, other than those related to a single exposure to a toxin causing an acute respiratory effect (these are classified as injuries).

Examples of respiratory disease include:

• Asbestosis  
• Mesothelioma
• Lung cancer
• Silicosis  
• Legionnaire’s disease
• Respiratory viruses

Cases of chronic respiratory illnesses (e.g. asbestosis, mesothelioma, lung cancer, silicosis) should be mentioned in the notes to the reporting data.

The incidence rate is the number of respiratory disease claims, as defined by the nominated TOOCS injury codes, divided by the FTE count for the financial year (as reported by the agency in the Self Insurance Risk Declaration, SIRD), multiplied by 1,000.

6. Manager and supervisor training

The PCBU shall determine the required WHS training for managers and supervisors based on the organisation’s risk profile. Consideration should be given to including content on risk management, psychosocial hazards, and chemical safety where relevant.

Training on injury management is available from ICWA or from other providers.

7. Percentage of workers returned to work on full duties and hours within (a) 13 weeks and (b) 26 weeks

The data is extracted for a specified period covering 12 months. For this measure, calendar year data is recommended to ensure that the claims reported are more than 26 weeks old.

(a) the number of the injured workers who returned to work to full hours and full duties (of a real job) on or before 13 weeks is divided by the number of LTI/Ds reported, then multiplied by 100.

(b) the number of the injured workers who returned to work to full hours and full duties (of a real job) on or before 26 weeks is divided by the number of LTI/Ds reported, then multiplied by 100.

Agencies are required to report the percentage result for (a) 13 weeks and (b) 26 weeks, with performance against the 70 per cent target relating only to (b) 26 weeks.

Note: Target will be increased in future years as shown below:

75% FYE 2029, FYE 2030 and FYE 2031

80% FYE 2032 and FYE 2033

8. Agency has a work health and safety management system that has been independently assessed in last five years

A workplace health and safety management system is a set of policies, procedures and plans that systematically manages health and safety at work and can help to minimise the risk of injury and illness from workplace operations.

There are various standards that can be used to assess an agency’s WHS management system, such as:

• The Australian standard, AS/NZS ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational health and safety management systems - Requirements with guidance for use)
• WorkSafe Plan; or
• Customised standards for specific applications.

To meet this requirement the agency will have engaged an independent competent person (auditor) to assess the WHS management system and provide an audit report within the last five years.

Auditors need to be independent of the facility/ activity they are auditing. This means an individual does not audit decisions they have made, for example they do not have any accountability for that facility. An auditor could be an agency’s employee, or another agency’s employee, or an external contractor/consultant.

They need to have appropriate skills and qualifications to conduct and lead an audit, preferably including completion of BSBAUD512 Lead quality audits or equivalent training.

9.  Consultative systems

(i)(a) The number of health and safety representatives (HSRs) employed across the agency in terms of persons, whether or not the HSR is a full time employee.

(i)(b) The number of HSRs who have attended the required HSR training.

(i)(c) The number of HSRs divided by the number of workers (calculated by persons rather than FTE) multiplied by 100.

(i)(d) The number of HSRs (in terms of persons) divided by the number of workplace sites (unique addresses) occupied by the agency.

Example: An agency has 20 HSRs and works out of 6 offices, for a ratio of 3.3 HSRs per workplace. A worker’s home is not considered a workplace site for this purpose.

(ii) Name/s of health and safety committees and sub-committees

List of the Agency’s health and safety committees established in accordance with the Work Health and Safety Act 2020, and any sub-committees.