Officer Due Diligence
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Officer due diligence is the positive, proactive duty placed on company officers under Australian Work Health and Safety law to ensure their organisation complies with its safety obligations. It covers staying informed, understanding operations, and verifying that resources and processes are in place.
Officer due diligence is the personal duty Australian Work Health and Safety law places on officers, such as directors and senior executives, to exercise care in ensuring their organisation meets its WHS obligations. It is a proactive duty: officers must take reasonable steps to acquire knowledge of safety matters, understand the operation and its hazards, and ensure the business has and uses appropriate resources and processes to manage risk.
Who is an officer
Section 4 of the model Work Health and Safety Act defines an officer as an officer within the meaning of section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001, other than a partner in a partnership, as well as officers of the Crown and of public authorities, but not an elected member of a local authority acting in that capacity. Under the Corporations Act that includes directors and secretaries, and people who make, or participate in making, decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the business.
Under section 27(1), if the PCBU has a duty or obligation under the Act, each officer must exercise due diligence to ensure the PCBU complies with it. An officer can be convicted or found guilty of an offence for breaching that duty whether or not the PCBU itself has been (section 27(4)).
Victoria is not a model WHS state; its duties sit under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. This page is general information, not legal advice: confirm the detail with your state or territory regulator.
Sources: Safe Work Australia: model Work Health and Safety Bill (5 December 2025)
The six elements of due diligence
Section 27(5) says due diligence includes taking reasonable steps to do each of the following. The list is inclusive, not exhaustive.
| Element | Reasonable steps to |
|---|---|
| (a) Know | Acquire and keep up-to-date knowledge of work health and safety matters |
| (b) Understand | Understand the nature of the operations of the business or undertaking and generally the hazards and risks associated with them |
| (c) Resource | Ensure the PCBU has available for use, and uses, appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise risks |
| (d) Respond | Ensure the PCBU has appropriate processes for receiving and considering information about incidents, hazards and risks, and responding in a timely way |
| (e) Comply | Ensure the PCBU has, and implements, processes for complying with its duties and obligations under the Act |
| (f) Verify | Verify the provision and use of the resources and processes in (c) to (e) |
Due diligence, section 27(5) of the model WHS Act (5 December 2025)
The Act's own examples for paragraph (e) include reporting notifiable incidents, notifiable extended absences and notifiable suicides; consulting with workers; complying with notices issued under the Act; providing training and instruction to workers; and ensuring health and safety representatives receive their training entitlements.
Sources: Safe Work Australia: model Work Health and Safety Bill (5 December 2025)
What an officer risks
For the category offences, the model Act fixes a separate maximum for an individual acting as a PCBU or as an officer of one. Schedule 4 sets the base amounts at $2,085,000 for a category 1 offence, $418,000 for category 2 and $140,000 for category 3, indexed by CPI each year from 1 July 2024. Each jurisdiction sets its own amounts.
Sources: Safe Work Australia: model Work Health and Safety Bill (5 December 2025)
Key facts you can cite
Section 27(5) of the model WHS Act lists six reasonable steps that due diligence includes: knowing, understanding, resourcing, responding, complying and verifying.
Source: Safe Work Australia, model Work Health and Safety Bill, checked 21 September 2026
An officer can be convicted of breaching the due diligence duty whether or not the PCBU has been convicted (section 27(4) of the model WHS Act).
Source: Safe Work Australia, model Work Health and Safety Bill, checked 21 September 2026
The model WHS Act adopts the Corporations Act definition of an officer, excluding partners in a partnership and elected local authority members acting in that capacity (section 4).
Source: Safe Work Australia, model Work Health and Safety Bill, checked 21 September 2026
Reporting notifiable incidents, consulting workers and providing WHS training are among the model WHS Act's examples of duties an officer must ensure the PCBU complies with (section 27(5)(e)).
Source: Safe Work Australia, model Work Health and Safety Bill, checked 21 September 2026
The model WHS Act's base maximum penalty for a category 1 offence by an individual acting as an officer is $2,085,000, before CPI indexation (Schedule 4).
Source: Safe Work Australia, model Work Health and Safety Bill, checked 21 September 2026
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Why it matters
The due diligence duty makes safety a board-level and executive responsibility, not something that can be delegated and forgotten. Officers can be held personally accountable for failing to exercise due diligence, separate from the duty held by the organisation itself. This drives leadership engagement in safety and creates demand for clear, reliable safety information that officers can use to verify the business is managing risk.
How MapTrack helps
MapTrack gives officers visibility of equipment compliance, overdue inspections, and incident trends through dashboards and reports, supporting the due diligence element of verifying that safety processes are in place and working.
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Frequently asked questions
What are the elements of officer due diligence?
Australian WHS law describes due diligence through several reasonable steps an officer should take: keeping up to date with WHS matters, understanding the operation and its hazards, ensuring appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise risk, ensuring processes for receiving and responding to information about incidents and hazards, ensuring legal compliance processes are in place, and verifying that all of these are being used.
Who is considered an officer under WHS law?
An officer is generally someone who makes, or takes part in making, decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the business, such as company directors and senior executives. The focus is on decision-making influence rather than job title. Officers hold the due diligence duty personally, in addition to the primary duty of care held by the PCBU.
Related terms
Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU)
A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) is the legal concept used in Australian Work Health and Safety (WHS) law to identify who holds the primary duty of care for safety. A PCBU is usually a company, partnership, sole trader, or other organisation rather than an individual. It must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and other people affected by its activities.
Notifiable Incident
A notifiable incident is a serious workplace event that Australian Work Health and Safety law requires a PCBU to report to the relevant WHS regulator. The categories are the death of a person, a serious injury or illness, and a dangerous incident that exposes people to a serious risk, even if no one is hurt. The PCBU must notify the regulator immediately on becoming aware that a notifiable incident has occurred.
Safety Management System (SMS)
A safety management system (SMS) is a structured framework of policies, procedures, responsibilities, and processes that an organisation uses to manage workplace health and safety risks. It typically includes hazard identification, risk assessment, incident reporting, emergency planning, training, auditing, and management review. In Australia, an SMS aligns with the WHS Act duties and may follow standards such as AS/NZS ISO 45001.
Compliance Monitoring
Compliance monitoring is the ongoing process of tracking, measuring, and verifying that an organisation meets its legal, regulatory, and internal policy obligations. It involves scheduled audits, automated alerts, documentation reviews, and data collection to demonstrate adherence. Effective compliance monitoring is continuous rather than periodic, using real-time dashboards and exception-based alerts to surface issues before they escalate.
Incident Reporting
Incident reporting is the formal process of recording, notifying, and investigating workplace events including injuries, illnesses, near misses, property damage, and environmental releases. In Australia, certain incidents must be notified to the WHS regulator under the notifiable incident provisions of the WHS Act. Effective incident reporting captures what happened, where, when, who was involved, the immediate causes, and contributing factors.
Cite this definition
Writing about this topic? You’re welcome to quote this definition. Here’s the wording to use so your readers can find the original.
Officer due diligence is the personal duty Australian Work Health and Safety law places on officers, such as directors and senior executives, to exercise care in ensuring their organisation meets its WHS obligations.
- Short attribution
- MapTrack Glossary: Officer Due Diligence, https://www.maptrack.com/glossary/officer-due-diligence
- Reference list
- MapTrack. (2026). Officer Due Diligence [Glossary definition]. Retrieved from https://www.maptrack.com/glossary/officer-due-diligence
Free to reuse with credit under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. If you’d rather link straight to it, the page is https://www.maptrack.com/glossary/officer-due-diligence.
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