Workplace Safety and Health (Risk Management) Regulations

Workplace Safety and Health Act

(CHAPTER 354A, Section 65)

Workplace Safety and Health (Risk Management) Regulations

Rg 8

G.N. No. S 141/2006

REVISED EDITION 2007

(1st October 2007)

[1st September 2006]

Citation

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Workplace Safety and Health (Risk Management) Regulations.

Definitions

2.  In these Regulations —

“hazard” means anything with the potential to cause bodily injury, and includes any physical, chemical, biological, mechanical, electrical or ergonomic hazard;

“risk” means the likelihood that a hazard will cause a specific bodily injury to any person;

“risk assessment” means the process of evaluating the probability and consequences of injury or illness arising from exposure to an identified hazard, and determining the appropriate measures for risk control.

Risk assessment

3.—(1)  In every workplace —

(a) the employer, self-employed person and principal shall conduct a risk assessment in relation to the safety and health risks posed to any person who may be affected by his undertaking in the workplace; and

(b) the platform operator shall conduct a risk assessment in relation to the safety and health risks posed to any of the platform operator’s platform workers at work in the workplace.

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(2)  The Commissioner may determine the manner in which the risk assessment referred to in paragraph (1)(a) or (b) is to be conducted.

[S 1019/2024 wef 01/01/2025]

Elimination and control of risk

4.—(1)  In every workplace —

(a) the employer, self-employed person and principal shall take all reasonably practicable steps to eliminate any foreseeable risk to any person who may be affected by his undertaking in the workplace; and

(b) the platform operator shall take all reasonably practicable steps to eliminate any foreseeable risk to any of the platform operator’s platform workers at work in the workplace.

[S 1019/2024 wef 01/01/2025]

(2)  Where it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate the risk referred to in paragraph (1)(a) or (b) (as the case may be), the employer, self-employed person, principal or platform operator (as the case may be) shall implement —

(a) such reasonably practicable measures to minimise the risk; and

(b) such safe work procedures to control the risk.

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(3)  The measures referred to in paragraph (2)(a) may include all or any of the following:

(a) substitution;

(b) engineering control;

(c) administrative control;

(d) provision and use of suitable personal protective equipment.

(4)  The employer, self-employed person, principal or platform operator (as the case may be) shall specify the roles and responsibilities of persons involved in the implementation of any measure or safe work procedure referred to in paragraph (2).

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(5)  In this regulation —

“administrative control” means the implementation of any administrative requirement which includes a permit-to-work system;

“engineering control”  —

(a) means the application of any scientific principle for the control of any workplace hazard; and

(b) includes the application of physical means or measures to any work process, equipment or the work environment such as the installation of any barrier, enclosure, guarding, interlock or ventilation system;

“safe work procedure” means any procedure for carrying out work safely, and includes any procedure which is to be taken to protect the safety and health of persons in the event of an emergency;

“substitution” means the replacement of any hazardous material, process, operation, equipment or device with less hazardous ones.

Records of risk assessment, etc.

5.—(1)  Every employer, self-employed person, principal and platform operator shall —

(a) maintain a record of any risk assessment conducted under regulation 3(1), and any measure or safe work procedure implemented under regulation 4(2); and

(b) submit the record referred to in sub-paragraph (a) to the Commissioner when required by him from time to time.

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(2)  Every record referred to in paragraph (1) shall be kept by the employer, self-employed person, principal or platform operator (as the case may be) for a period of not less than 3 years.

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Provision of information

6.—(1)  In every workplace, the employer, self-employed person, principal and platform operator shall take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that the specified person is informed of —

(a) the nature of the risk involved; and

(b) any measure or safe work procedure implemented under regulation 4(2).

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(2)  The employer, self-employed person, principal and platform operator shall comply with paragraph (1) whenever any risk assessment referred to in regulation 3(1) is revised, or where any measure or safe work procedure implemented under regulation 4(2) is changed.

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(3)  In paragraph (1), the specified person —

(a) in relation to the employer, self-employed person and principal, is any person; and

(b) in relation to the platform operator, is any platform worker of the platform operator,

in the workplace who may be exposed to a risk to his safety and health.

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Review of risk assessment

7.—(1)  In every workplace —

(a) the employer, self-employed person and principal shall review and, if necessary, revise the risk assessment mentioned in regulation 3(1)(a); and

(b) the platform operator shall review and, if necessary, revise the risk assessment mentioned in regulation 3(1)(b),

at least once every 3 years.

(2)  Despite paragraph (1) —

(a) the employer, self-employed person and principal shall review and revise the risk assessment mentioned in regulation 3(1)(a); and

(b) the platform operator shall review and revise the risk assessment mentioned in regulation 3(1)(b),

if any of the circumstances specified in paragraph (3) occurs.

(3)  The specified circumstances mentioned in paragraph (2) are —

(a) the occurrence of any bodily injury to any person as a result of exposure to a hazard in the workplace; or

(b) a significant change in work practices or procedures.

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Offences

8.—(1)  A person who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes regulation 3(1) or 4(1), (2) or (4) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.

(2)  A person who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes regulation 5(1), 6(1) or (2) or 7(1) or (2) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction —

(a) to a fine not exceeding $20,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both; or

(b) if the person is a repeat offender, to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.

(3)  A person who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes regulation 5(2) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction —

(a) to a fine not exceeding $10,000; or

(b) if the person is a repeat offender, to a fine not exceeding $20,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.

(4)  In this regulation, “repeat offender”, in relation to an offence, means a person who —

(a) is convicted, or found guilty, of an offence specified in the first column of Part 1 or 2 of the Schedule (called the current offence); and

(b) has been convicted, or found guilty, of an offence specified opposite the current offence in the second column of Part 1 or 2 of that Schedule (as the case may be), on at least one other earlier occasion within the period of 5 years immediately before the date on which the person is convicted, or found guilty, of the current offence.

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