The Health Regulator is the main regulatory oversight branch of the Department of Health. Our work includes:
- administering permissions and licensing
- monitoring compliance and enforcing the law
- regulatory reform and policy.
Areas we regulate
- First Aid service providers
- Radiation safety
- Pest control
- Legionella risk management
- Child safety
- Food safety
- Medicines and poisons
- Schools of anatomy
- Non-emergency patient transport
- Private hospitals and day procedure centres
- Tobacco and e-cigarettes
- Water
Our focus
From 2024 to 2026, the Health Regulator will embed and continuously improve its regulatory practices through the application of our principles
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The Health Regulator regulates a range of duty holders to ensure compliance with health legislation and prevent serious harm to the health of Victorians.
Our work includes developing education and guidance, issuing approvals and licences, monitoring compliance with regulatory requirements and taking risk-based, graduated and proportionate compliance and enforcement action.
These regulatory activities help to promote compliant behaviour, making sure health risks and impacts are managed, and Victorians are protected from harm.
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Our principles guide the work we do, and how we operate. We are committed to our practices being:
- Consistent
- Collaborative
- Targeted
- Efficient
- Intelligence-based
- Clear
- Adaptable
- Proportionate
- Accountable
- Transparent
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- Establish a cohesive Health Regulator
- Set and embed our regulatory approach
- Consolidate and renew our partnerships
- Review and plan our use of data
- Communicate our priorities
Delivering on our priorities
Establishing a cohesive Health Regulator
We will leverage our extensive regulatory knowledge and expertise to enable a best-practice approach to regulation.
We will foster a culture of knowledge sharing, open collaboration, capability development, and continuous improvement.
Applying our regulatory principles in our practice
We will set and embed our regulatory approach, proportionate to the associated health risks. Using intelligence, we will target our compliance and enforcement efforts to prevent serious harm.
Accurate, reliable, and timely data provides the foundation for effective regulation. We will review and plan our use of data, using scientific evidence, research, and analysis to drive our regulatory decisions and activities.
Building relationships and communicating our priorities
We will consolidate and renew our partnerships. Working closely with our network of co-regulators will enable more efficient use of expertise and data and promote more effective regulatory outcomes.
We recognise the importance of ongoing and transparent communication with our stakeholders and partners, including the Victorian community. We are committed to communicating our priorities and delivering clear and consistent guidance to drive increased compliance.
Reforms to health legislation
We are working on:
- Proposed legislative reforms to health regulation tools and assisted reproductive treatment regulation.
- Legislation updates for private health service establishments.
Reviewed 23 August 2024