Category 1 offence (WHS)
A Category 1 offence is the gravest WHS Act offence: reckless conduct by a duty holder exposing a person to death or serious injury, carrying fines and jail.
Ask Chalkline about this →A Category 1 offence is the most serious offence under the Work Health and Safety Act, the top of a three-tier structure. It applies where a person with a health and safety duty, without reasonable excuse, engages in conduct that exposes an individual to a risk of death or serious injury or illness, and does so recklessly (and, in some jurisdictions that have amended the fault element, with gross negligence) as to that risk.
The three tiers run by seriousness:
- Category 1 (s.31): the duty holder is reckless (or grossly negligent) as to a risk of death or serious injury. The highest penalties apply, including substantial fines and, for an individual, imprisonment.
- Category 2 (s.32): the duty holder fails to comply with a duty and that failure exposes a person to a risk of death or serious injury, but without the recklessness element. Large fines, no jail.
- Category 3 (s.33): a straight failure to comply with a duty, no exposure-to-death element required. The lowest tier.
The dividing line that lifts conduct into Category 1 is the mental element: recklessness or gross negligence, not just a breach. That is why most prosecutions run as Category 2, and why Category 1 is reserved for the worst conduct. Category 1 sits alongside, but is separate from, the industrial manslaughter offences that most states have now enacted, which target a death caused by negligent conduct.
For a builder the practical point is that liability can attach to a PCBU and to individual officers and workers. The protection against a Category 1 exposure is the same as for any serious risk: identify it, control it up the hierarchy, and keep the records that show you did. See the WHS Act overview.
Also known as: Cat 1 offence, reckless WHS offence.
Category: WHS / Offences and penalties.
Related
See also
References
- Model Work Health and Safety Act, s.31, Safe Work Australia (verified 2026-06-01)
Last updated: 2026-06-01. Verified: 2026-06-01. Quarterly review for currency.