Queensland Consolidated Acts

WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT 2011 - SECT 31

31 Negligent or reckless conduct—category 1

(1) A person commits a
"category 1 offence" if—

(a) the person has a health and safety duty; and

(b) the person, without reasonable excuse, engages in conduct that exposes an individual to whom that duty is owed to a risk of death or serious injury or illness; and

(c) the person—

(i) engages in the conduct with negligence; or

(ii) is reckless as to the risk to the individual of death or serious injury or illness.

Penalty—

Maximum penalty—

(a) for an offence committed by an individual, other than as a person conducting a business or undertaking or as an officer of a person conducting a business or undertaking—3,000 penalty units or 5 years imprisonment; or

(b) for an offence committed by an individual as a person conducting a business or undertaking or as an officer of a person conducting a business or undertaking—6,000 penalty units or 5 years imprisonment; or

(c) for an offence committed by a body corporate—30,000 penalty units.

Note—

In this division, the penalty applicable to a body corporate is separately expressed. Otherwise the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 , section 181B applies for this Act.

(2) The prosecution bears the burden of proving that the conduct was engaged in without reasonable excuse.

(3) A category 1 offence is a crime.