There are currently two types of incident registers for licenced venues:
A licensed premises that is required to keep a mandatory incident register must do so in a form approved by the Secretary. This can be either the bound book “green book” available for purchase or a digital incident register matching the digital requirements set out in the Digital Incident Register Guidelines.
Licensed premises can choose to maintain their liquor and gambling incident registers together or in two separate incident registers. For ease of operations and reporting it is recommended to maintain the two registers separately unless you are using a digital incident register platform.
What is an incident register and what are the requirements?
A Liquor Incident Register is mandatory if you are the licensee of a premises that is:
All hotels and registered clubs with Gaming Machine Entitlements or Permits are required to keep a Gambling Incident Register and record all gambling incidents.
If your venue holds Gaming Machine Entitlements or Permits but does not operate any gaming machines at any time, you do not need to keep a Gambling Incident Register. This exemption ends whenever one or more gaming machines are operating at your venue.
Maintaining an incident register will give you a better understanding of incidents that affect the safety of your licensed premises and customers, as well as giving you a better understanding of how gambling harm is affecting your patrons.
It will help you to understand trends at your venue over a long period of time. It will also help you to develop correct strategies to reduce the risk of alcohol-related violence, anti-social behaviour and will help you to develop strategies to reduce gambling harm at your licensed premises.
An incident register provides the ability for a licensed premises to make detailed notes of incidents should the incident need to be reviewed at a later point in time.
We encourage all licensees to maintain an incident register even if it is not a requirement for your licensed premises. They are a useful compliance tool and can form part of your venue's responsible practice.
A grace period was in place until 31 December 2024, during which licensed premises were permitted to use the old incident register and digital register formats, as well as the new format. This period provided time for industry and digital incident register providers to transition to the new register format.
A grace period was in place until 31 December 2024, during which licensed premises were permitted to use the old incident register and digital register formats, as well as the new format. This period provided time for industry and digital incident register providers to transition to the new register format.
From 1 January 2025 you must use the new version of the bound book (green book) and digital register.
You can find more information about each type of incident register in the related links below.
If you have any accessibility feedback or concerns related to this resource, please contact us.
