Product Overview

Summary: This Regulatory Compliance Audit SOP provides a structured, repeatable approach for planning, conducting, and reporting compliance audits across your Australian operations. It helps your business demonstrate due diligence, close compliance gaps early, and maintain confidence with regulators, clients, and senior leadership.

This Regulatory Compliance Audit Standard Operating Procedure is designed for Australian organisations that need a clear and defensible way to test whether their operations meet legislative, regulatory, and contractual obligations. Rather than relying on ad hoc checks or individual knowledge, this SOP sets out a consistent, evidence-based audit process that can be applied across WHS, environmental, HR, clinical, financial, and broader governance requirements. It supports organisations operating under a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) model and helps demonstrate that officers are exercising due diligence.

The procedure walks your team through every stage of the audit lifecycle: from defining audit scope and criteria, building audit tools and checklists, and gathering objective evidence, through to rating findings, agreeing corrective actions, and tracking close-out. It also embeds principles of fairness and transparency, so auditees understand what is being tested and why. By implementing this SOP, you reduce the risk of non-compliance going unnoticed, improve the quality of your internal assurance, and create an audit trail that stands up to regulator scrutiny, client audits, and certification body reviews.

Key Benefits

• Ensure a consistent, repeatable approach to compliance audits across all sites and business units.
• Reduce the risk of undetected non-compliance that could lead to enforcement action, penalties, or reputational damage.
• Streamline preparation for regulator inspections, client audits, and third-party certifications by maintaining a clear audit trail.
• Improve accountability by assigning clear responsibilities, timeframes, and follow-up actions for each audit finding.
• Support officer due diligence obligations by providing structured reporting on compliance performance and emerging risks.

Who is this for?

• Compliance Managers
• WHS Managers
• Risk and Governance Managers
• Quality Assurance Managers
• Internal Auditors
• Operations Managers
• HR Managers
• Environmental Managers
• Directors and Officers (PCBU representatives)
• Practice Managers (healthcare, legal, financial services)
• Site and Facility Managers
• HSEQ Coordinators

Included Sections

• 1.0 Purpose and Scope
• 2.0 Definitions and Key Terms
• 3.0 Roles, Responsibilities and Authorities
• 4.0 Audit Planning and Annual Audit Program
• 5.0 Determining Audit Scope, Objectives and Criteria
• 6.0 Auditor Competency, Independence and Conflict of Interest
• 7.0 Audit Tools, Checklists and Document Templates
• 8.0 Pre-Audit Preparation and Notification
• 9.0 Conducting the Audit – Evidence Collection and Sampling
• 10.0 Classification of Findings (Conformity, Non-Conformity, Observation, Opportunity for Improvement)
• 11.0 Audit Reporting, Ratings and Recommendations
• 12.0 Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPA) and Close-Out Tracking
• 13.0 Communication of Results to Management and Governance Bodies
• 14.0 Follow-Up Audits and Verification of Effectiveness
• 15.0 Recordkeeping, Document Control and Data Security
• 16.0 Integration with WHS, Quality, Environmental and Information Security Management Systems
• 17.0 Continuous Improvement of the Audit Program
• 18.0 Appendices – Sample Audit Plan, Checklists, Report Templates and Action Registers

Legislation & References

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth and model WHS Acts adopted by States and Territories)
• Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Cth and State/Territory equivalents)
• AS ISO 37301:2023 Compliance management systems – Requirements with guidance for use
• AS/NZS ISO 19011:2019 Guidelines for auditing management systems
• AS ISO 31000:2018 Risk management – Guidelines
• Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) – Directors’ and officers’ duties (as relevant to governance and due diligence)
• Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and Australian Privacy Principles (for audits involving personal information)
• Environment Protection Acts and Regulations (State and Territory specific, for environmental compliance audits)
• Safe Work Australia Codes of Practice (various, as applicable to WHS compliance topics audited)