Legal Appointments Template: 16.2 Appointment Letter and Appointments Register
A section 16(2) appointment letter, in which the chief executive officer assigns health and safety duties to a named manager, and a register of every written appointment the site holds, with the appointments in the Construction Regulations, 2014 already listed against their regulation. Inspectors and the client's agent ask for both, and the register shows at a glance which appointment is missing or due for review.
Completed when someone takes up a role that needs a written appointment, reviewed whenever the person, the role or the work changes, and checked against the register before work starts and at every 30-day audit on a construction site.
Legal basis checked 26 October 2026
What is in the template
Section 16(2) appointment letter
- Appointee (full name and employee number)
- Position
- Workplace, site or part of the business the assignment covers
- Duties assigned: the employer duties under the OHS Act this person must see carried out
- Authority and budget the appointee may use without referring back
- Resources, training and support provided
- Reports to, and how often
- Effective date and next review date
- Chief executive officer: name, signature and date
- Appointee: I accept this appointment and understand the duties above. Signature and date
Section 16(1) of the OHS Act makes the chief executive officer responsible for seeing that the employer's duties under the Act are properly discharged. Section 16(2) lets the CEO assign any of those duties to a person under the CEO's control, but the assignment does not take the responsibility away from the CEO. Name the duties, the area and the authority precisely: a letter that assigns "all duties under the Act" assigns nothing anyone can check.
Construction Regulations, 2014 appointments
Columns: Appointment · Regulation · Appointed by · Name · Date appointed · Competency evidence · Review or expiry
- Principal contractor · CR 5(1)(k) · Appointed by: Client
- Client's agent, where a construction work permit is required · CR 5(5) · Appointed by: Client
- Each contractor · CR 7(1)(c)(v) · Appointed by: Principal contractor
- Construction manager, and an alternate · CR 8(1) · Appointed by: Principal contractor
- Assistant construction managers · CR 8(2) · Appointed by: Principal contractor
- Construction health and safety officer · CR 8(5) · Appointed by: Contractor
- Construction supervisors · CR 8(7) · Appointed by: Construction manager
- Competent employees assisting the supervisors · CR 8(8) · Appointed by: Contractor
- Risk assessor · CR 9(1)
- Fall protection plan developer · CR 10(1)(a)
- Temporary works designer · CR 12(1)
- Temporary works supervisor · CR 12(2)
- Excavation supervisor · CR 13(1)(a)
- Demolition supervisor · CR 14(1)
- Scaffolding supervisor · CR 16(1)
- Suspended platform supervisor · CR 17(1)
- Rope access supervisor · CR 18(1)(a)
- Material hoist inspector · CR 19(8)(a)
- Bulk mixing plant supervisor · CR 20(1)
- Explosive-actuated fastening device examiner, and cartridge issuer · CR 21(2)(b), 21(2)(g)
- Operators of construction vehicles and mobile plant, authorised in writing · CR 23(1)(d)(i)
- Person in control of temporary electrical installations · CR 24(c)
- Stacking and storage supervisor · CR 28(a)
- Fire equipment inspector · CR 29(h)
The written appointments the Construction Regulations, 2014 call for, with the regulation behind each. Strike out the ones the work does not need (no excavation, no scaffold) and keep the rest current: an appointee who leaves the site leaves a gap until the next letter is signed. Competency evidence is the qualification, registration or training record the regulation expects; the construction health and safety officer, for example, must be registered with the statutory body the Chief Inspector approves (CR 8(6)).
Other OHS Act and site appointments
Columns: Appointment · Act or regulation · Name · Date appointed · Training or competency · Review or expiry
- Section 16(2) assignees (one row each) · OHS Act s16(2)
- Health and safety representatives, at a workplace with more than 20 employees · OHS Act s17
- Health and safety committee members · OHS Act s19
Add the appointments your other regulations and your own procedures call for, such as first aiders, the incident investigator, the machinery and electrical appointments and the fire team, each with the regulation that requires it. On a mine, the MHSA and its regulations set their own list of appointments; record them the same way.
Review record
- Date of this review
- Reviewed by
- Appointments missing or expired (row numbers)
- Corrective actions raised
- Next review due
- Signature
How to fill it in
- 1Write a section 16(2) letter for each manager who will carry part of the CEO's duties: name the duties, the area and the authority, and have both people sign it.
- 2Go down the Construction Regulations list, strike out the appointments the work does not need, and fill in the name, date and competency evidence for each one it does.
- 3Add the other OHS Act and site appointments in the last table, each with the Act or regulation that requires it.
- 4File each signed letter in the health and safety file and date its row. A row without a signed letter is a gap, not an appointment.
- 5Review the register when a person leaves or changes role, before work starts and at each 30-day audit, and raise a corrective action for every gap.
A general template, not legal advice. Check it against the Act, the regulations and the codes of practice that apply to your site, and against your own safety management system. Section 16(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 85 of 1993, makes the chief executive officer responsible for the employer's duties under the Act, and section 16(2) allows those duties to be assigned to another person without derogating from the chief executive officer's own responsibility. Health and safety representatives are designated under section 17 and committees established under section 19. The construction appointments are those named in the Construction Regulations, 2014 (GN R84 of 7 February 2014), with the regulation listed against each. Draft replacement regulations were published for comment in March 2025 and had not been finalised when this template was made, so check the numbers against the regulations in force.
Legal basis checked on against: Occupational Health and Safety Act, 85 of 1993, sections 16, 17 and 19; Construction Regulations, 2014 (GN R84 of 7 February 2014), regulations 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 to 14, 16 to 21, 23, 24, 28 and 29.
Convert this template into a digital form
Run it on an Android phone with no signal, attach photos as evidence, and every failed item raises an issue with an owner and a due date.
Start the trial from here and this template is waiting in your workspace as a ready-made form.
The same record in Inspecable
On paper the register is only as current as the last person who updated it. In Inspecable the same record keeps going:
- The safety management system records legal appointments and committees alongside a legal register that comes seeded with an MHSA or an OHS Act pack of obligations.
- Signed appointment letters are kept as documents with versions and expiry badges, and the Android app reads the current version offline.
- A missing or expired appointment found at a review goes into the corrective-action register with an owner and a due date, and closure is refused without evidence and a signature.
Questions
What is a 16.2 appointment?
A written assignment under section 16(2) of the OHS Act, in which the chief executive officer gives a named manager part of the employer's health and safety duties for an area or a part of the business. The CEO stays responsible, so the letter should name the duties, the area and the authority, and both people should sign it.
What is a 16.1 appointment?
Section 16(1) makes the chief executive officer responsible for the employer's duties under the OHS Act. A "16.1 appointment" is the common name for a letter recording who that person is. The Act prescribes no form for it, and the duty applies to the CEO whether or not a letter exists.
Which legal appointments does a construction site need?
At least a construction manager (CR 8(1)) and construction supervisors (CR 8(7)), a construction health and safety officer appointed after consulting the client (CR 8(5)), and the appointments the work triggers: scaffolding, excavation, fall protection, temporary works, vehicle and plant operators, temporary electrics and fire equipment. The register lists each with its regulation.
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