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Commercial and Professional Diving Risk Assessment

Commercial and Professional Diving Risk Assessment

  • • 100% Compliant with Australian WHS Acts & Regulations
  • • Fully Editable MS Word & PDF Formats Included
  • • Pre-filled Content – Ready to Deploy Immediately
  • • Customisable – Easily Add Your Logo & Site Details
  • • Includes 2 Years of Free Compliance Updates

Commercial and Professional Diving Risk Assessment

Product Overview

Identify and control organisational risks associated with Commercial and Professional Diving through a structured, management-level WHS Risk Management approach that strengthens planning, governance and operational oversight. This Risk Assessment supports compliance with the WHS Act, relevant diving standards and codes of practice, helping to demonstrate Due Diligence and reduce organisational liability for diving operations.

Risk Categories & Hazards Covered

This document assesses risks and outlines management controls for:

  • WHS Governance & Diving Operations Management: Oversight of legal duties, safety leadership, diving project approval processes and integration of diving activities into the organisation’s WHS management system.
  • Competency, Training & Diving Authorisation Systems: Management of diver qualifications, verification of competency, refresher training, task-specific instruction and formal authorisation to dive.
  • Fitness for Work, Medical & Fatigue Management: Systems for pre-employment and periodic medicals, monitoring of fitness to dive, fatigue risk management and controls for alcohol and other drugs.
  • Dive Planning, Hazard Identification & Job Safety Analysis: Structured dive planning processes, risk assessment methodologies, JSA procedures and approval workflows for commercial and professional dives.
  • Decompression, Gas Planning & Physiological Risk Control: Management of decompression profiles, gas mix selection, exposure limits, thermal stress and controls for decompression sickness and barotrauma.
  • Diving & Hyperbaric Equipment Management: Procurement standards, configuration control, inspection, testing, maintenance and lifecycle management of diving, breathing and hyperbaric equipment.
  • Vessels, Platforms, Access & Logistics: Selection and control of work vessels, dive platforms, access systems, lifting arrangements, transport logistics and interface with other marine operations.
  • Work Environment, Water Quality & Biohazard Management: Assessment of visibility, currents, temperature, contamination, marine life, biohazards and environmental conditions influencing diver safety.
  • High-Risk & Specialised Diving Activities: Controls for confined space diving, penetration dives, night/low visibility work, construction and demolition tasks, and other complex or high-risk underwater operations.
  • Communications, Signals & Situational Awareness: Management of underwater communications, line signals, surface coordination, navigation aids and systems to maintain real-time situational awareness.
  • Emergency Preparedness, Rescue & Hyperbaric Incident Response: Planning for diver rescue, emergency retrieval, on-site first aid, recompression access and escalation procedures for diving-related incidents.
  • Information Management, Documentation & Records: Control of dive plans, logs, medicals, training records, equipment registers, incident reports and retention of documentation for audit and legal defence.
  • Behavioural Safety, Culture & Operational Discipline: Promotion of safety culture, stop-work authority, supervision standards, communication of expectations and reinforcement of procedural compliance.

Who is this for?

This Risk Assessment is designed for Business Owners, Diving Contractors, Project Managers and Safety Managers responsible for planning, approving and overseeing commercial and professional diving operations.

Hazards & Risks Covered

Hazard Risk Description
1. WHS Governance, Legal Compliance and Diving Operations Management
  • • Absence of a documented WHS and diving operations governance framework aligned with WHS Act 2011, WHS Regulations and AS/NZS 2299 series
  • • Inadequate identification of diving work that is ‘high risk’ under WHS Regulations and failure to apply additional controls
  • • No clear allocation of PCBU, officer, supervisor and diver responsibilities for commercial and professional diving activities (including police, military, research and aquaculture diving)
  • • Inadequate process to approve and manage specialised diving activities (e.g. saturation diving, mixed gas, nuclear, underwater demolition, blasting, offshore and maritime security diving)
  • • Failure to integrate diving WHS risks into the organisation’s overall risk management system and risk register
  • • Inadequate review of lessons learnt from incidents and industry alerts, including hyperbaric and chamber events
  • • Poor consultation with workers, contractors and health and safety representatives on diving safety matters
  • • Lack of assurance that third‑party diving contractors maintain compliant systems (audit, pre‑qualification, verification of competency)
  • • No formal management of change (MoC) process for new dive techniques, equipment types (e.g. rebreathers, surface supplied systems) or locations (caves, wrecks, ice, nuclear, harbour clearance, overhead environments)
2. Competency, Training and Diving Authorisation Systems
  • • Divers, supervisors and support personnel lacking appropriate qualifications, licences and experience for specific commercial and professional diving activities
  • • Inadequate verification of competency for advanced activities such as saturation diving, deep water decompression, cave and overhead environment diving, nuclear diving, underwater blasting and demolition, and underwater criminal investigation
  • • Failure to provide and verify specialist training in diving physiology, decompression theory, emergency surface ascents, in‑water recompression (where allowed by policy), diver rescue and hyperbaric chamber operation
  • • Insufficient training in specific techniques such as use of lift bags, use of bailouts, night diving, low visibility diving, ice diving, high current and surge, wreck penetration, bowline tying under water, stage cylinder rigging and left surface mark buoy deployment
  • • Lack of competency frameworks for non‑diver roles such as dive coordinators, supervisors, life support technicians, chamber operators, and topside support staff for saturation systems
  • • No formal assessment of competency to use planning tools such as dive computers, decompression tables, PADI RDP training, running decompression software and nitrox/trimix blending calculations
  • • Poor maintenance of records of training, assessments, refresher training and authorisations to dive for specific tasks (research diving, police diving, military and special forces diving, underwater photography, maritime security diving, aquaculture diving)
3. Fitness for Work, Medical Assessment and Fatigue Management
  • • Inadequate diving medical assessments for commercial and professional divers, including those involved in saturation, mixed gas, overhead environment and nuclear diving
  • • Lack of processes to monitor and manage acute and chronic health issues relevant to diving (cardiovascular conditions, respiratory illness, seizures, mental health, obesity)
  • • No screening for impairments due to alcohol, drugs (including prescribed medication) or other substances that may elevate risk in diving and hyperbaric environments
  • • Poor fatigue management for extended shifts, offshore rotations, night diving, saturation system crew, hyperbaric chamber staff and emergency response teams
  • • Absence of policies to limit breath‑holding diving and free diving in commercial and professional settings where not essential, or to manage their specific risks where required
  • • Inadequate management of stress, anxiety and claustrophobia associated with cave diving, wreck penetration, overhead environments, nuclear diving and hyperbaric chamber operations
  • • Lack of a process to ensure divers are acclimatised to cold water diving, high altitude diving and extreme thermal environments prior to undertaking demanding tasks
4. Dive Planning, Hazard Identification and Job Safety Analysis
  • • Inadequate pre‑dive hazard identification for varied work such as aquaculture diving, harbour clearance, maritime security, research diving, underwater photography, inspection, maintenance and underwater criminal investigation
  • • Failure to recognise specialised hazards of overhead environment diving, wreck diving, cave diving, swimming through narrow spaces and diving into untested waters
  • • Poor assessment of environmental conditions such as currents, visibility, water temperature, tides, surf, ice conditions and vessel traffic for offshore and near‑shore operations
  • • Lack of systematic differentiation between routine diving and high‑risk tasks such as underwater blasting, cutting and welding, pile driving, subsea drop testing and nuclear diving
  • • Inadequate consideration of altitude, depth, repetitive diving, decompression stop diving and test depth diving in planning decompression strategies
  • • Insufficient integration of research or police operational requirements with WHS risk controls, leading to unsafe compromises in dive plans
  • • No formal process to halt unnecessary diving where risk is disproportionate to operational benefit
5. Decompression Management, Gas Planning and Physiological Risk Control
  • • Inadequate decompression planning for deep water diving, repetitive dives, saturation diving, mixed gas diving and diving at altitude
  • • Over‑reliance on dive computers or decompression software without verification against tables or organisational rules
  • • Incorrect use of PADI RDP training principles and decompression tables for commercial profiles not suited to recreational algorithms
  • • Nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity, carbon dioxide retention and inert gas loading mismanaged due to poor gas planning and monitoring
  • • Inadequate procedures for nitrox blending, trimix blending and gas analysis leading to incorrect gas mixtures being used
  • • Lack of structured management of decompression sickness incidents, including in‑water recompression, therapeutic recompression and hyperbaric treatment
  • • Insufficient control of breath‑holding/free diving practices in combination with scuba or surface supplied diving, increasing risk of lung barotrauma and decompression stress
6. Diving and Hyperbaric Equipment Procurement, Configuration and Maintenance
  • • Procurement of diving, surface supplied and saturation equipment that does not meet relevant Australian Standards or is unsuitable for intended commercial and professional activities
  • • Inadequate maintenance systems for critical life‑support equipment including regulators, rebreathers, bailout systems, dive computers, masks, dry suits, hot‑water suits and communications
  • • Improper configuration of technical diving gear such as stage cylinders, rebreathers, mixed gas systems and bailout rigs for deep, wreck, cave and overhead environment work
  • • Failure of surface supplied systems, umbilicals, helmet/hard hat diving equipment and associated communications due to poor inspection, maintenance or configuration control
  • • Lack of formal management of changes to equipment types, configurations, software versions and firmware for dive computers and monitoring systems
  • • Inadequate maintenance and inspection of hyperbaric chambers, saturation systems, life support systems, emergency gas supplies and associated control systems
  • • Improper storage, handling and transport of cylinders, high‑pressure gases, nitrox/trimix blends, and explosives used in underwater blasting and demolition
7. Vessels, Platforms, Access and Logistics Management
  • • Poorly controlled loading of dive boats and support vessels, including cylinders, lift bags, explosives, tools, cranes and drilling equipment
  • • Insufficient vessel stability and deck layout design for safe diver entry, exit, gear donning/de‑kitting and manual handling in rough conditions
  • • Inadequate integration of vessel navigation and WHS controls in busy harbours, ports and offshore locations used for harbour clearance, maritime security and offshore diving
  • • Lack of safe systems of work for use of cranes, A‑frames, moonpools and other launch and recovery systems in subsea drop testing, underwater pile driving and offshore diving
  • • Poor planning for remote and offshore logistics including fuel, spares, emergency equipment, communications, and medical support
  • • Failure to manage the interface between vessel operators, diving contractors and other PCBUs regarding responsibilities and emergency response
8. Work Environment, Water Quality and Biohazard Management
  • • Exposure to contaminated or polluted water during harbour clearance diving, underwater criminal investigation, nuclear diving, aquaculture diving and maintaining underwater exhibits
  • • Biological hazards from marine life (e.g. sea urchin diving, lobster diving, aquaculture pests, stings, bites, infections) and biofouling on underwater structures
  • • Poor control of biohazard diving activities, including work involving sewage, medical waste, carcasses or contaminated sediments
  • • Insufficient assessment of nuclear, radiological or chemical hazards in specialised nuclear diving environments
  • • Inadequate management of water temperature extremes, including cold water diving and ice diving, leading to hypothermia or cold stress
  • • Unassessed hazards associated with diving into untested waters, such as submerged obstacles, entanglement risks and unknown contamination
9. High‑Risk and Specialised Diving Activities Management
  • • Lack of specific system controls for complex diving such as cave diving, wreck diving, overhead environment diving, swimming through narrow spaces and overhead environment isolation
  • • Inadequate planning and controls for saturation diving, saturation system maintenance and deep sea/offshore diving activities
  • • Poor governance of underwater blasting, underwater demolition, underwater cutting or welding, underwater drilling and underwater pile driving
  • • Insufficient risk controls for military, special forces and police diving where operational imperatives may pressure WHS decision‑making
  • • Inadequate systems for night diving, low visibility diving, high current diving and diving at altitude
  • • Overextension of recreational methods and equipment into technical and commercial environments (e.g. using recreational standards for deep technical or mixed gas diving)
10. Communications, Signals and Situational Awareness Systems
  • • Failure or absence of reliable communications between divers and surface support during commercial, police, military, aquaculture and research diving operations
  • • Lack of training or adherence to diving signals, including line signals, light/torch signals for night and low visibility diving and hand signals
  • • Poor situational awareness in complex environments such as wrecks, caves, overhead structures and construction sites with cranes and pile driving
  • • Inadequate procedures for lost diver, lost line, entanglement or out‑of‑gas scenarios in low visibility or high current conditions
  • • Insufficient marking and monitoring of dive sites in areas with vessel traffic, including harbours and offshore work sites
  • • Absence of effective communication protocols during emergency events in saturation systems, hyperbaric chambers and underwater blasting operations
11. Emergency Preparedness, Rescue and Hyperbaric Incident Response
  • • Inadequate emergency response planning for diver rescue, emergency surface ascents, uncontrolled buoyant ascents and entrapment scenarios
  • • Lack of effective on‑site rescue capability for overhead environment, wreck, cave, under‑ice and confined space diving environments
  • • Insufficient capacity and procedures for hyperbaric emergencies, including chamber fire, rapid decompression, medical emergencies during treatment and power failure
  • • Poor coordination with external emergency services for offshore, remote and nuclear diving sites
  • • No structured approach to emergency recall and stand‑down of diving operations during severe weather, vessel emergencies or site security events
12. Information Management, Documentation and Record Keeping
  • • Incomplete or inaccurate recording of dive profiles, gas mixes, decompression schedules and incidents, impeding analysis of decompression sickness and other events
  • • Poor documentation of maintenance, inspections and testing for diving and hyperbaric equipment, including saturation systems and chambers
  • • Loss or fragmentation of training, competency and medical records for divers and support staff
  • • Inadequate version control for dive plans, procedures, decompression tables, decompression software configurations and emergency plans
  • • Failure to capture and share lessons learned from incidents, near misses and industry alerts across all teams and sites
13. Behavioural Safety, Culture and Operational Discipline
  • • Normalisation of deviance, where divers and supervisors routinely accept shortcuts to decompression, gas planning or equipment checks
  • • Production or mission pressure overriding WHS controls in commercial, military, special forces, police and research diving operations
  • • Poor reporting culture, with divers reluctant to report near misses, decompression symptoms, equipment failures or breaches of procedure
  • • Inconsistent adherence to buddy systems, checklists, pre‑dive briefings and post‑dive debriefings
  • • Complacency in routine tasks such as aquaculture diving, maintaining underwater exhibits or repetitive harbour clearance diving

Need to add specific hazards for your workplace?

Don't worry if a specific hazard isn't listed above. Once you purchase, simply log in to your Client Portal and add your own custom hazards at no extra cost. We take care of the hard work—creating the risk ratings and control measures for free—to ensure your document is compliant within minutes.

Legislation & References

This document was researched and developed to align with:

  • Work Health and Safety Act 2011
  • Work Health and Safety Regulations 2017
  • AS/NZS ISO 31000:2018: Risk management — Guidelines
  • AS/NZS 4801 / ISO 45001: Occupational health and safety management systems — Requirements with guidance for use
  • AS/NZS 2299.1 Occupational diving operations: Standard operational practice
  • AS/NZS 2299.2 Occupational diving operations: Scientific diving
  • AS/NZS 2299.3 Occupational diving operations: Recreational diving instruction
  • AS 4774.1: Work in compressed air and hyperbaric facilities — Hyperbaric oxygen treatment
  • AS/NZS 1715: Selection, use and maintenance of respiratory protective equipment
  • AS/NZS 1891 series: Industrial fall-arrest systems and devices (for vessel and platform access interfaces)
  • Safe Work Australia Codes of Practice: How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks; Managing the Work Environment and Facilities; First Aid in the Workplace; Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace
  • Relevant State/Territory Diving and Marine Safety Guidelines: Including regulator guidance on occupational diving operations and marine vessel safety.
Standard Risk Assessment Features (Click to Expand)
  • Comprehensive hazard identification for all activities
  • Risk rating matrix with likelihood and consequence analysis
  • Existing control measures evaluation
  • Residual risk assessment after controls
  • Hierarchy of controls recommendations
  • Action priority rankings
  • Review and monitoring requirements
  • Consultation and communication records
  • Legal compliance references
  • Sign-off and approval sections

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