A non-notifiable incident is one that does not result in a person suffering from a serious bodily injury or death and is not a dangerous event.

While you do not have to notify Workplace Health and Safety Queensland about non-notifiable incidents, it is important to record and investigate all incidents including "near misses" so action can be taken to prevent similar incidents occurring in the future.

How to record a non-notifiable incident
Who needs to record non-notifiable incidents
How to investigate an incident

How to record a non-notifiable incident

The record must be made on the approved form (PDF, 376KB) within three days of the person making the record becoming aware of the incident.

The record must be kept for one year after the record was made.

Employers, self-employed people and principal contractors who fail to make a record of a particular incident at the workplace will not commit an offence if they:

• Did not know about the incident

• Were incapacitated by the work caused illness or work injury; and

• Make a record as soon as possible after recovery.

Who needs to record non-notifiable incidents:

If the incident is a work caused illness, or work injury, the following persons must make a record of it:

• If it happened to a worker - the worker's employer

• If it happened to an employer - the employer

• If it happened to a self-employed person - the self-employed person

• If it happened at a construction workplace - the principal contractor

If the incident is a dangerous event, the following persons must make a record of it:

• if it happened at a workplace - the employer or self-employed person

• if it happened at a construction workplace - the principal contractor

If the workplace incident involves:

• An employer or

• Self-employed person, or

• A worker of an employer

At a construction workplace, the employer or self-employed person must give the principal contractor any help the principal contractor may reasonably require to complete an approved form (PDF, 376KB) .

How to investigate an incident

Ways to investigate an incident include:

• Collect information and establish facts about the incident – who was involved, what happened, where and how it happened and why.

• Isolate the contributory factors – what are the underlying causes of the incident?

• Determine how to fix the problem – investigators should make recommendations based on the underlying causes.

• Fix the problem – involve the right people to implement recommendations and corrective actions.

More about conducting an internal investigation.