Public Consultation: Proposed Public Health and Wellbeing (Prescribed Accommodation) Regulations 2020

The Public Health and Wellbeing (Prescribed Accommodation) Regulations 2009 (the regulations) are due to sunset on 14 December 2020. Under the regulations, certain types of commercial accommodation (hotels and motels, hostels, student dormitories, holiday camps, rooming houses and residential accommodation (certain forms) ) are regulated as "prescribed accommodation". Prescribed accommodation providers are required to meet hygiene, maintenance and other standards and requirements intended to minimise public health risk that may arise from shared use of facilities, high turnover of occupants and/or overcrowding.

Prescribed accommodation intersects across several government portfolios, and a number of complex cross-portfolio reviews are being undertaken or will commence shortly across Government, on matters relating to prescribed accommodation. It is therefore proposed that the regulations should be re-made for 10 years substantially unchanged (with updates that are minor and technical) to allow time for the reviews to be completed and for the Department of Health and Human Services to consider the outcomes of these reviews and any necessary changes to the regulations after that.  

Objective of the proposed Regulations

The objective of the regulations is to prescribe matters required, permitted or necessary to be prescribed to give effect to the prescribed accommodation provisions, with the objective of minimising public health risks associated with prescribed accommodation.

Public consultation

Public consultation is sought on the exposure draft regulations. The Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) sets out the reasons for the proposed re-making of the regulations in more detail. It presents the potential costs and benefits of the proposal, and identifies alternative regulatory approaches.

The RIS and the proposed regulations can be viewed below.

Submissions in response to the RIS must be received no later than 11.59pm on 15 October 2020 via email to phwr2020@dhhs.vic.gov.au or you can contact the team by telephone on 1800 965 255. Please contact the project team if you would like a hard copy of the RIS and the exposure draft regulations.

All comments and submissions will be treated as public documents unless the person making the comment or submission requests that it not be publicly available. You may also choose to make an anonymous submission. Given the links between the regulations and other Government reviews about accommodation that are currently or will shortly be underway (as identified in the RIS), please advise if you are agreeable to your submission being provided to other Government reviews.

Documentation

• Exposure Draft Public Health and Wellbeing (Prescribed Accommodation) Regulations 2020 (PDF/Word)
• Regulatory Impact Statement- Public Health and Wellbeing (Prescribed Accommodation) Regulations 2020 (PDF/Word)
• Letter of adequacy from Better Regulation Victoria (PDF/Word)

Privacy collection statement

Participation in this consultation is voluntary. 

The Department of Health and Human Services (the department) collects and handles your information in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and the Health Records Act 2001. 

The information you provide in your submission will be considered by the department in providing advice to the Minister for Health to finalise the proposed Public Health and Wellbeing (Prescribed Accommodation) Regulations 2020 and may be shared with the Minister for Health and other relevant Ministers.

All submissions will be treated as public documents unless the person making the comment or submission requests that it not be publicly available. Submissions and comments may be published with your name and contact details and your organisation's name, and contact details. If you request that your submission not be publicly available, your feedback will be drawn upon but not published or directly quoted. Your contact details may be used for consultation follow up and notifying you of the outcomes of the consultation, including notification about the publication of a statement of reasons regarding the form of the final regulations. 

If you choose to make an anonymous submission, it may be published or quoted but no identifying material will be included.

Comments and submissions will also be provided to the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee (SARC) of Parliament after the Regulations are made, in accordance with the requirements of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994.

If you agree, your submission, including name and contact details, may be provided to other Government departments or Victorian statutory bodies carrying out cross-portfolio reviews as identified in the regulatory impact statement. 

If you have provided your name you may access the information that you provide to the department. If you have chosen to remain anonymous you will not be able to access your information once it has been submitted.

For more information on the department's privacy collection, please refer to the department's privacy policy or visit our website on: https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/publications/privacy-policy

The Team conducting the consultation can be contacted by emailing phwr2020@dhhs.vic.gov.au or by calling 1800 965 255 until the end of the submission period at 11.59pm on 15 October 2020, or you may contact the department's Information Sharing and Privacy team by emailing privacy@dhhs.vic.gov.au.