One Form, Not Seventy-Six: WorkSafe Tackles Contractor Prequalification Overload
On 20 August 2026, WorkSafe released a new prequalification template and position statement designed to bring some consistency to how construction businesses prove their health and safety credentials before they're hired. If your business engages contractors, or works as one, this is worth five minutes of your time.
The problem WorkSafe was trying to fix
Prequalification, the process by which a business checks a contractor's health and safety credentials before engaging them, has become its own compliance burden. WorkSafe heard from one contractor who completed 76 separate prequalifications in a single year, each with different questions, formats and evidence requirements. For some smaller operators, the cost of getting prequalified has started to exceed the value of the job itself, to the point where some have simply walked away from the work.
Why prequalification exists in the first place
The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 works on the basis that multiple businesses often share the same workplace, and therefore share overlapping duties. On a construction site, that usually means a principal, a lead contractor and several subcontractors, all with their own duties running at the same time.
Each of those businesses must, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult, cooperate and coordinate with everyone else they share a duty with. WorkSafe expects businesses to be able to point to the concrete steps they've taken to do this, and sound contractor management, including prequalification, is one of the main ways that gets demonstrated.
What the new template actually offers
The new template gives businesses a standard way to assess a contractor's general competence and their approach to managing health and safety risk, rather than each business inventing its own version. WorkSafe intends it to also work for government procurement, so that a contractor bidding for several public sector jobs isn't stuck completing a different form for every agency.
What this means for your business
If your business engages contractors, this is a good moment to line up your existing prequalification process against the new template and see where it can be simplified. The key principle carried through the guidance is proportionality: the depth of information you ask for should match the nature and risk of the work, not a single checklist applied to every contractor regardless of the job.
Get in touch with our team about any technical health and safety management questions.
Disclaimer: We remind you that while this article provides commentary on employment law, health and safety and immigration topics, it should not be used as a substitute for legal or professional advice for specific situations. Please seek legal advice from your lawyer for any questions specific to your workplace.
