Incident Reporting

Incident Reporting

Reporting incidents — including near misses — is a legal requirement and one of the most powerful tools for improving safety. The adventure sector's safety record improves when operators report honestly and learn from what goes wrong.

What Must Be Reported

Notifiable events must be reported to WorkSafe immediately:

• Death of any person
• Notifiable injury (serious injury requiring hospitalisation, loss of limb, serious head injury, etc.)
• Notifiable illness
• A dangerous incident that exposed someone to a serious risk of harm

As of April 2024, natural hazard incidents are now notifiable events under the Adventure Activities Amendment Regulations.

How to Report to WorkSafe

• Phone: 0800 030 040 (24 hours)
• Online: worksafe.govt.nz
• You must notify immediately after becoming aware of the event

Near Misses — Report Everything

Near misses and minor incidents should also be recorded internally. A near miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury or damage — but could have. They are the most valuable learning opportunities because nobody was hurt.

Create a reporting culture where staff feel safe to report near misses without fear of blame.

Your Internal Incident Register

Every operator should maintain an internal incident register recording:

• Date, time, and location
• What happened
• Who was involved (staff and participants)
• The immediate response
• Root causes identified
• Corrective actions taken
• Sign-off by responsible manager

Using Incidents to Improve

After every incident:

• Investigate root causes — not just the immediate cause, but the systemic factors
• Identify what changes are needed to your procedures, equipment, or training
• Share learnings with all staff (anonymously if appropriate)
• Update your risk assessment and SOPs if needed
• Record that the review was completed

Record Keeping

Records of notifiable events must be kept for at least five years. All incident records should be retained for your audit cycle plus two years.

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Notifiable events — full detail

The adventure activities regulations define specific incidents and injuries that must be notified, beyond the standard HSWA thresholds. See Notifiable events for adventure activities for the full list under Regulations 19A and 19B, how to notify WorkSafe, site preservation duties, and record-keeping requirements.