Local Government Public Health Act Optional Reporting

Overview

Section 22 of the Public Health Act 2016 (the Act) requires Local Governments to report to the Department of Health on their performance of functions under the Act. In addition to these reporting requirements the Department of Health has developed a number of additional optional questions to assist with the Regulation Review Program that is currently being undertaken as part of the Public Health Act 2016 implementation.

Why your views matter

Local Governments are being asked a number of optional questions about the 2016/2017 financial year as a way to assist the Department of Health in the regulatory review process that is occurring as part of the Public Health Act 2016 roll out and implementation.

The implementation of the new Act requires  all existing subsidiary legislation under the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1911 to be reviewed and streamlined into a manageable number of regulations, with some features moved to more appropriate enforcement agencies, such as FESA and the Building Commission, and redundant features omitted. The data collected from the optional reporting questions will be used to make an informed decision about the public health risks present in WA, determine how they are managed or need to be managed and to understand how the current legislation is being used. 

Some of the regulations being reviewed include:

All responses received to the optional questions will assist the Department of Health in determining how public health risks should be managed in Western Australia going forward under the Public Health Act 2016. 

What happens next

The data that has been provided to the Department of Health is being used in the Health (Miscellanous Provisions) Act 1911 regulation review process. All regulations under this Act are to be repealed with new public health risk managment measures to be created under the Public Health Act 2016.