26 January, 2026: New Zealand universities welcome Minister Van Velden's decision to fix the health and safety regulations applying to laboratories used for teaching and research

More than 2000 laboratories across New Zealand are public research laboratories, and nearly all would be non-compliant with current regulations without spending between $1.5bn to $3bn and associated increased annual operating costs.

That cost would have ultimately been borne by taxpayers as these laboratories – in universities, public research organisations and members of the Independent Research Association of New Zealand (IRANZ) - are either Crown entities or carry out extensive Crown-funded research.

The Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017 were designed to manage industrial-scale volumes and routine repeated activities and are impracticable in our situation in many cases. Minister Van Velden’s changes to the regulations are consistent with a continued focus on safety in our universities’ mostly bespoke and small-scale laboratories.

New Zealand universities look forward to the planned amendments to the 2017 Regulations.

Professor Neil Quigley

Chair, Universities New Zealand | Vice-Chancellor, University of Waikato

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