FFP Guides

Compliance by state

When is test and tag actually mandatory in NSW?

NSW's Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 does not set a fixed test and tag interval. It requires regular testing once equipment is supplied through a socket outlet and used somewhere that exposes it to moisture, heat, vibration, mechanical damage, corrosive chemicals or dust, what SafeWork NSW calls a higher risk workplace, with AS/NZS 3760 filling the gap on how often.

Last checked 25 Sep 2026 against the sources listed at the end of this page.

Official name
No single certificate. A duty to inspect, test and tag electrical equipment under the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW)
Regulator
SafeWork NSW
Who issues it
The PCBU (the business) arranges the testing. A competent person carries it out and attaches the tag or record
When
Plug in equipment used somewhere its normal use exposes it to damage or reduced life span, moisture, heat, vibration, mechanical damage, corrosive chemicals or dust, what SafeWork NSW calls a higher risk workplace. Construction and demolition sites instead follow AS/NZS 3012
Deadline
No fixed interval in the Regulation itself. SafeWork NSW requires testing 'regularly' and points to AS/NZS 3760 for the recommended frequency
Lodgement
Nothing is lodged with SafeWork NSW. The record is kept at the workplace or on the tag
Keep records for
Kept until the equipment is next tested, permanently removed from the workplace, or disposed of
Penalty
SafeWork NSW does not publish a fixed dollar penalty for this specific testing duty. A breach of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 is a WHS offence, and where it exposes a worker to a risk of death or serious injury it can be prosecuted as a category 2 offence under the WHS Act 2011: up to $1,160,117 or 10 years imprisonment for an individual, or $11,606,824 for a body corporate. A category 3 offence, a failure to comply without needing to show that risk, carries up to $232,716 for an individual.

Homeowner? If you run a business in NSW, ask whoever tests your equipment for the AS/NZS 3760 due date on the tag: the law sets the trigger, not the interval, so nobody chases that date for you.

What the certificate must show

Recent change

The Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) commenced 22 August 2025, remaking the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 before its automatic repeal.

Produce it from a ServiceM8 job

  1. Set up each site as a client with a note on whether it counts as a higher risk workplace (moisture, heat, vibration, dust, corrosive chemicals, or equipment that is frequently moved) or a construction site running AS/NZS 3012.
  2. Build a form, Test and tag NSW, with per item questions: Item description, Environment (higher risk / general / construction), Test result, Tester name, and a Photo of the tag.
  3. Add a Date field, Next test due, calculated from the AS/NZS 3760 interval that matches the environment answer, so the office can see it without opening the record.
  4. Create a 12 month (or shorter, matching the item's interval) Reminder so retest jobs land in the Inbox automatically.
  5. Attach the form to a job badge and require it before the job can be checked out, so no test goes unrecorded.
  6. Email the completed record from the job diary to the site contact, and keep the job diary as the record until the item's next test.

No blanket law, just a trigger

Businesses often ask which NSW law sets the test and tag interval. There isn't one. NSW follows the national model work health and safety scheme, now consolidated in the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025, which commenced 22 August 2025 and replaced the 2017 regulation. SafeWork NSW's own guidance is blunt about the duty: electrical equipment "must be regularly inspected and tested by a competent person to identify damage, wear and detect electrical faults", but the regulation does not hand you a number of months.

What it does hand you is a trigger. Testing becomes mandatory once plug in equipment is used somewhere its normal use exposes it to conditions likely to damage it or shorten its life, SafeWork NSW's list is moisture, heat, vibration, mechanical damage, corrosive chemicals or dust. Industry and the older AS/NZS 3760 standard call this a hostile operating environment. SafeWork NSW's current guidance uses a plainer label, higher risk workplace, for the same set of conditions, plus equipment that gets moved between locations, moved often during normal use, or forms part of an amusement device.

Once you're over the trigger, the standard does the work

SafeWork NSW does not publish its own interval table. It points businesses to AS/NZS 3760:2022, the national in-service testing standard, for the recommended frequency once equipment is in scope. That is why every "NSW test and tag interval" number you see quoted, 3 months on a construction site, 12 months for equipment that gets flexed or knocked about, up to 5 years in a genuinely low risk office, actually comes from the standard, not the regulation. Treat the regulation as the switch that turns testing on, and the standard as the dial that sets how often.

What the record has to show

Whatever interval you land on, SafeWork NSW's guidance requires the test record to carry four things: the name of the person who carried out the test, the date it was done, the outcome, and the date the next test is due. That record can be a tag on the item itself. Keep it until the equipment is next tested, permanently removed from the workplace, or thrown out, there is no fixed retention period past that point.

Construction sites follow a separate standard

Building and demolition sites are not covered by the higher risk workplace test at all, they have their own standard, AS/NZS 3012 (Electrical installations, construction and demolition sites), which is where the familiar 3 month tag cycle and quarterly tag colours come from. If a site is doing both office fitout work and live construction at once, the construction areas run on AS/NZS 3012 and everything else runs on the higher risk workplace test.

Same trigger in the other model states

SA, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory all run the same national model work health and safety scheme as NSW, so the higher risk workplace or hostile operating environment trigger and the lack of a fixed interval apply there too. Queensland and Victoria are the two exceptions covered separately in this guide, Queensland because it carved electrical safety out into its own Act with prescribed intervals, Victoria because it never adopted the model laws.

Sources

  1. The currently in-force NSW work health and safety regulation is the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025, which commenced on 22 August 2025. The earlier Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 was due for automatic repeal on 1 September 2025 and has been remade as the 2025 version. SafeWork NSW, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  2. Electrical equipment must be regularly inspected and tested by a competent person to identify damage, wear and detect electrical faults. The duty applies to equipment supplied through a socket outlet and used in an environment where its normal use exposes it to operating conditions likely to result in damage or a reduced life span, for example exposure to moisture, heat, vibration, mechanical damage, corrosive chemicals or dust. Test records must include the tester's name, the testing date, the outcome, and the date the next test is due, kept until the equipment is next tested, permanently removed from the workplace, or disposed of. SafeWork NSW, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  3. SafeWork NSW describes higher risk workplaces (for the purpose of the residual current device duty) as circumstances where equipment is used in conditions likely to cause damage or reduced life span (moisture, heat, vibration, mechanical damage, corrosive chemicals, dust), moved between locations with a risk of damage, frequently moved during normal use, or part of an amusement device. SafeWork NSW, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  4. AS/NZS 3760:2022 sets indicative test intervals from daily up to 5 yearly depending on the environment, and AS/NZS 3012 covers electrical installations on construction and demolition sites. Test & Tag Training, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  5. Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), a category 2 offence carries a maximum penalty of $1,160,117 or 10 years imprisonment for an individual, and $11,606,824 for a body corporate; a category 3 offence carries up to $232,716 for an individual. The current NSW penalty unit value for 2026-27 is $128.36. SafeWork NSW, checked 25 Sep 2026.