Why do you need to do this?
WHS laws require all businesses — including sole traders and small businesses — to monitor their work conditions and respond appropriately to any incidents, accidents, or near misses. Companies that engage you need to understand what steps you take when something goes wrong during your work. This helps prevent repeat incidents and shows that you learn from experience and take safety seriously.
What should you do?
You need to provide a short explanation of how you currently manage incidents or near misses in your work. This helps demonstrate that you have a responsible and proactive approach, even if your work is low risk or you work alone.
A simple response for a low-risk sole trader or small business might be:
"If an accident or near-miss happens, I stop work straight away and make the area safe. I let the client know what happened and look into what went wrong. I update my work methods if needed to stop it from happening again. I also keep a simple record of any incidents to help track and improve my safety practices."
This shows you have a clear process, take accountability, and are committed to improving safety over time.
You need to provide the details of what you actually do when an incident or near miss happens.
This should reflect your real process, and ideally, it should be written down on your incident report form or included in your incident response procedure. This helps you stay consistent and gives clients confidence in how you manage safety.