Prescribed forms and Chief Health Officer Guidelines

• Failed to comply with the general duty
• Conduct a material public health risk
• Circumstances outlined in section 212.

• To be issued once the improvement notice has been complied with (section 215).
• An authorised officer is required to complete an assessment and be satisfied that an improvement notice has been complied with, prior to issuing a Notice of Compliance.

• If, after carrying out an appropriate assessment, an authorised officer is not satisfied that the improvement notice has been complied with, the officer must give the person a Notice of Non-compliance setting out the reasons why the authorised officer is not satisfied (section 215(2)).

• A Certificate of Clearance must be issued by the enforcement agency once an enforcement order has been complied with and if applicable, there is no longer a serious public health risk to be prevented or mitigated (section 223).
• An enforcement agency must be satisfied, either by its own assessment or on the report of an authorised officer’s assessment, that an enforcement order has been complied with, prior to issuing a Certificate of Clearance.
• Once the Certificate of Clearance has been issued, the enforcement order is considered to be revoked.

• If an assessment is undertaken and reveals that the enforcement order has not been complied with, the enforcement agency must provide a written notice to the person detailing the reasons for that decision (section 224 (3)). This written notice must be in the approved form.

• An authorised officer must be issued with, and show evidence on request, of their authorisation under the Act. This is achieved by issuing any person who is authorised under the Act with a Certificate of Authority card.
• Section 30(2) sets out the requirements for the content of the certificate.
• An authorised officer must carry their ID cards with them. If asked to show their ID card (section 30(3)) and he or she cannot, the authorised officer cannot exercise the relevant powers of the Act.

• Once an authorised officer has seized an item, they must provide written notification to the person from whom the item was seized as soon as practicable.
• The contents of the written notification must include specific details in accordance with section 258.

• For enforcement agencies who prefer to have a written record of an occupiers consent to enter a premise.
• Consent can be made verbally or in writing as long as it is in accordance with section 240(4).

• An authorised may request that a person develops a risk management plan as part of the requirements of an Improvement Notice. The risk management plan must:
  
  • identify the public health risks associated with the activities specified in the improvement notice
  • set out the steps to be taken to manage those risks
  • ensure compliance with any requirements of this Act that relate to those activities.

• The Chief Health Officer must issue guidelines on the qualification and experience of authorised officers in accordance with section 29. Enforcement agencies must have regard to this guideline when designating persons as authorised officers to enforce the Act.

• The Chief Health Officer must gazette the approved qualification and experience of environmental health officers. Any person appointed as an environmental health officer under section 17 of the Act must have one of these qualifications.

Information Sharing Gudelines (500KB PDF)

• Section 299 (3) of the Public Health Act 2016 stipulates that a public health official may discloserelevant information to other public health officials, officers of an enforcement agency orofficers of an information sharing agency. In addition, officers of an enforcement agency maydisclose relevant information to public health officers, officers on another enforcement agencyor officers of an information sharing agency (section 299(4)).