Site safety plan, hazard register and toolbox talk record (NZ): the three pages WorkSafe expects a small trade business to be able to show.
A site-specific safety plan written to the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, a hazard and risk register pre-filled with the six hazards on most trade sites, an induction register and a toolbox talk record. PDF and editable Word. Free, no email required.
What goes in a site-specific safety plan?
Who is on site and who to call, the site rules, what happens in an emergency, how the businesses on site coordinate, and a hazard register that names each hazard, who it could hurt, and the control in the order the regulations set: eliminate first, then minimise by substitution, isolation or engineering, then administrative controls, then protective equipment. Under the Act every business (PCBU) must ensure health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable (section 36), must consult and coordinate with other businesses on the same site (section 34), must engage workers on matters that affect them (sections 58 to 61), and must notify WorkSafe of a notifiable event as soon as possible, preserve the site and keep the record for five years (sections 55 to 57). Across 20,286 publicly posted NZ trade reviews, clear explanation is praised in 35 to 36% of positive reviews and tidiness in about 15%. A site that is run safely looks run, and clients notice.
The job this document is doing.
- —A generic ‘health and safety policy’ from the internet that mentions no hazard actually on this site
- —The sub’s team arrives and nobody has told them about the asbestos in the 1970s ceiling
- —A near miss on Tuesday is never written down, so the same thing happens on Thursday
- —Toolbox talks happen but there is no record, so when WorkSafe asks, there is nothing to show
Open it and use it today.
- 01Page 1: law in one box, site and contacts, seven site rules, emergency table (serious injury, fire, services strike, weather), communication, sign-off
- 02Page 2: hazard register with six pre-filled hazards (height, live electrical, asbestos, power tools, manual handling, public and children) and three blank rows; induction register
- 03Page 3: toolbox talk record with what was covered, team suggestions as worker engagement, attendance
- 04Editable Word version of all three
Free to use and adapt for your own business. Not legal advice: check contract terms against your own terms of trade and, where it matters, with a lawyer.
The law behind it. Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, sections 34, 36, 55 to 61; Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, regulation 6 (hierarchy of controls). Checked on legislation.govt.nz and worksafe.govt.nz on 9 October 2026. General information, not legal advice.
Why this document, and not another one.
| Trade | Clear explanation praised | Tidiness praised |
|---|---|---|
| Plumbers | 35.5% of positive reviews | 15.3% |
| Electricians | 34.9% of positive reviews | 15.0% |
| Painters | 36.2% of positive reviews |
From 20,286 publicly posted reviews of 369 NZ electricians, plumbers and painters, collected August 2026. Positive reviews score 80 or more out of 100. Negative reviews score under 50 on any dimension; those samples are small (56 to 167 reviews), so negative-review figures are rounded and reported as rank order, not precision. Full corpus, method and thresholds: the trades methodology page. Full findings: the trades research study.
The questions this document answers, in full.
Hazard Register for a Small Business in NZ: How to Set One Up
Read the answer →How to Create a Site-Specific Safety Plan (Small Trade Business, NZ)
Read the answer →Use it alongside
Subcontractor agreement template (NZ) with employee-or-contractor checklist
An eleven-clause agreement between a head contractor and an independent subcontractor, plus a one-page employee-or-contractor checklist.
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