Compliance audit program
Environmental compliance
Ensuring industry, government and the community comply with environmental legislation is fundamental to environment protection and the delivery of credible cost-effective regulation. DECC uses compliance audits as a tool to complement its regulatory activities.
Strategic Environmental Compliance and Performance Reviews
DECC undertakes a program of Strategic Environmental Compliance and Performance Reviews. The aim of these Reviews is to encourage industries to improve their environmental performance. The Reviews combine assessing compliance with legislative requirements with reviewing best environmental management practices to encourage improved environmental performance. Public reports are released and the review findings feed into licence reviews and ongoing compliance activities. Reviews also involve undertaking consultation with external stakeholders during various stages of the process, including upfront feedback on priority setting.
What are the objectives of the Strategic Environmental Compliance and Performance Reviews?
The objectives of the Reviews are to:
- identify best environmental management practices
- assess compliance with relevant legislative requirements at a representative selection of premises via auditing, and examine environmental controls and practices at those premises
- improve regulation and the environmental performance of both licensed and non-licensed activities
- work with other regulators and communicate the outcomes of Reviews
- provide the community opportunities to provide input
- facilitate linkages between the Reviews and programs being undertaken by other areas of the DECC
How do we choose the activities and sectors for review?
The Reviews focus on priority environmental issues. Sectors and activities targeted are chosen by assessing major environmental and community concerns alongside DECC's corporate objectives and strategies. Criteria considered include the likelihood of environmental harm to human health and the environment from an activity, the nature of hazards associated with chemicals used, the complexity of the activity, emissions and wastes from the activity, gaps in understanding of the activity, environmental performance, location of the activity, community concern, the opportunity to make significant environmental gains in relation to the activity and opportunities to integrate with other DECC programs.
Other Compliance Audits
The DECC also undertakes focussed compliance audits conducted on any enterprise that the it regulates.
Compliance audits assess an enterprise's compliance with environmental legislation and regulatory requirements. The audits are generally unannounced.
DECC also reviews its regulation of individual premises and industry sectors to identify areas where improved regulation will help achieve the desired environmental outcomes. This may include the use of other tools such as education, consultation/negotiation and enforcement.
Compliance Audit Handbook
Auditsare conducted in accordance with the procedures and protocols in the Compliance Audit Handbook (542 kb, requires acrobat reader). These procedures are designed to ensure a consistent approach to audits, helping to ensure they are all adequate, reliable and comparable.
The handbook is a guide for DECC officers, but may also be used by other organisations undertaking compliance audits including public authorities, industry and industry groups, professional associations, consultants and contractors; and as an educational resource by students.
Reporting compliance audit findings
The findings of each audit and a follow-up action program based on the audit findings are reported in a compliance audit report which is sent to the audited enterprise. Copies of each audit report are available to the public through DECC's library. DECC follows up with each audited enterprise to ensure that all issues are resolved.
Strategic Environmental Compliance and Performance Reviews allow DECC to identify common issues contributing to any failureto comply by the audited sector/activity and other issues of environmental concern. These issues together with information on best environmental management practices to improve environmental performance are reported in Strategic Environmental Compliance and Performance Review Reports.
DECC uses these findings to review how best its resources could be channelled to guide industry overall to address the issues identified in the report. Businesses audited benefitby understanding and managing the environmental and business risk of operating in their industries. Review findings are also a valuable resource to assist other regulators such as local councils to undertake their compliance activities.
The following Strategic Environmental Compliance and Performance Review Reports have been published (reports provided as PDF require acrobat reader):
Strategic Environmental Compliance and Performance Review Report
- Industrial Estates (PDF 1.5 MB)
- Preventing Contaminated Sites (PDF 373 kb)
Environmental Compliance Report - Liquid Chemical Storage, Handling and Spill Management
- Part A Compliance Audit (PDF 249 kb)
- Part B Review of Best Practice and Regulation (PDF 116 kb)
- Part C Final Report (PDF 73 kb)
Environmental Compliance Report - Wood Preservation Industry
- Part A Compliance Audit (PDF190 kb)
- Part B Review of Best Practice and Regulation (PDF 111 kb)
- Part C Final Report (PDF 204 kb)
Other compliance audit reports published on industry sectors
- Piggeries Compliance Performance Report (PDF 102 kb)
- Coal Mines Compliance Performance Report (PDF 138 kb)
- Extractive Industry Compliance Performance Report (PDF 131 kb)
Other compliance adudit reports
Other audit activities
- Load-based licensing audit program
- Waste audit
- Radiation
- Pesticides
- Forestry
- Threatened species
- Aboriginal Cultural Heritage
- Native Vegetation