These amendment regulations, which come into force on 20 October 2025, make technical amendments to the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017 (the principal regulations) to ensure the effective application of requirements for separation distances in the retail sale of flammable liquids.

Regulation 4 amends regulation 11.32 of the principal regulations. The effect of the amendment is that packages of class 3.1 substances that are exempt from separation distance requirements may, if the substance is paint, be briefly opened for the purpose of tinting. This amendment makes the provision more workable in practice and consistent with regulation 11.33(2)(a).

Regulation 5 amends regulation 11.33 of the principal regulations by inserting new subclauses that provide that the external protected place referred to in regulation 11.33(1)(d) and the adjoining building referred to in regulation 11.33(1)(e) do not include an external place or an adjoining building that is on the same retail site as the retail shop and is an integral part of the business or undertaking conducted in the retail shop. The effect of this amendment is that no separation or fire-resistant wall is required between a retail shop building storing class 3.1B and 3.1C flammable liquids (for example, a large retail hardware store) and an external place or adjoining building of that kind (for example, a garden centre, a timber yard, or a café). This effect applies regardless of whether the external place or the adjoining building is roofed and regardless of whether it, or the business or undertaking that is conducted in it, involves the same person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) as the retail shop building or a different PCBU.