Which of the following is not an issue that must be reported to a compliance department?

Australian Government agencies have reporting obligations under the Legal Services Directions 2017.

Reporting of significant issues

Non-corporate Commonwealth entities under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013, and any agencies that were an FMA agency on 30 June 2014 are required to report as soon as possible on issues arising in the delivery of legal services, especially the handling of claims and litigation.

Once a matter has been reported to the Office of Legal Services Coordination (OLSC) as significant:

  • entities are required to provide updates on the progress of those issues
  • significant claims are not to be settled without the Attorney-General's prior agreement.

A guidance note on the reporting of significant issues is available on the Legal Services Directions and guidance notes page.

Refer to paragraph 3 of the Legal Services Directions 2017 and paragraphs 2(e)(iv) and 5.2 of Appendix B of the Legal Services Directions 2017 for more information.

The Significant issues reporting template and Significant issues settlement request template are available to download below:

Australian Government agencies are required to report to OLSC about their legal services expenditure within 60 days after the end of the financial year.

Agencies must submit expenditure reports using the template that OLSC provides to all agencies at the start of each financial year. If you have not received this template, please contact OLSC at or 02 6141 3642.

The department’s legal services expenditure reports:

Legal services expenditure reports before 201718 are available in our annual reports.

Non-corporate Commonwealth entities and former FMA agencies are obliged to report to OLSC as soon as practicable about any possible or apparent breaches of the Legal Services Directions 2017.

Download the Agency notification form.

  • Legal Services Directions - Agency notification form

After each financial year, the accountable authority of a non-corporate Commonwealth entity or former FMA agency must provide a certificate setting out the extent to which they believe the entity has complied with the Legal Services Directions 2017.

Download the compliance certificate.

  • Annual Certificate of Compliance 2021-22 – Agency notification form

A guidance note on compliance with the Legal Services Directions 2017 is available on the Legal Services Directions and guidance notes page.

Compliance Framework

The Compliance Framework sets out OLSC's approach to supporting Commonwealth entities to achieve compliance with the Legal Services Directions 2017.

  • OLSC - Compliance Framework

In particular, OLSC's approach is to assist agencies to comply with the Legal Services Directions 2017 through support, guidance and training. This promotes awareness of obligations, recognition of better compliance strategies, identification of emerging issues, and appropriate management of legal risk.

OLSC will monitor (and where necessary verify) agency compliance with the Legal Services Directions 2017. However, OLSC does not conduct reviews or investigations in relation to possible or actual non‑compliance with the Legal Services Directions 2017, except in exceptional circumstances, such as where there is evidence of a systemic issue emerging within an agency or in the sphere of Commonwealth legal work generally.

Statistical data

In support of its role in monitoring compliance with the Legal Services Directions 2017, OLSC publishes statistical information about non-compliance.

From 2017-18, OLSC has made changes to its internal processes and record-keeping associated with compliance with the Legal Services Directions 2017. These changes have increased capacity to produce data readily and reliably, but makes it more difficult to compare previous years.

The compliance statistics can be found at the following:

Should I make a report?
How will my report be used?
Before reporting your concerns to us
How do I make a report?
Collection, use and disclosure of personal information
Further information and resources

The department is responsible for supporting the safety, environmental and anti-theft performance of all road vehicles being provided to the Australian market for the first time. The department administers these arrangements under the Road Vehicle Standards (RVS) legislation.

This page provides members of the public, industry and other regulators with avenues to report potential vehicle safety issues or alleged non-compliance with RVS legislation.

Should I make a report?

Reports from the public, industry and other regulators help us effectively administer RVS legislation. We would like to receive reports about:

  • potential systemic safety issues related to the design or manufacture of road vehicles
  • the potential need for a vehicle safety recall
  • any concerns regarding the progress or performance of existing vehicle safety recalls
  • alleged breaches of RVS legislation including (but not limited to), Australian Design Rules (ADRs) non-compliance, failure to comply with conditions of an approval, importing or providing vehicles to the Australian market without the necessary permissions.

How will my report be used?

The information you provide may be used to assist us in identifying potential issues with road vehicle safety, recalls or breaches of RVS legislation. Information provided may also assist us when we undertake compliance monitoring activities.

You may be contacted further if we need additional information (but not if you report anonymously).

Please note we do not provide engineering or legal advice, or advice on the safety of individual vehicles. Importantly, we do not assist with disputes between vehicle owners and manufacturers, suppliers or dealerships.

Not all matters reported to us will be investigated. Your report will be assessed to determine if the matter will be pursued further. When a matter is not immediately pursued, the information you have provided will help us to identify any trends regarding the reported matter.

Before reporting your concerns to us

Before reporting your concerns please consider the following:

  • Read and understand the owner's manual for your vehicle. Sometimes a concern can be quickly resolved by understanding how particular features of your vehicle operate.
  • See if your vehicle is subject to a recall. You can search for your vehicle on the Vehicle Recalls website or contact the vehicle manufacturer.
  • Contact your dealership or supplier and discuss the concern or issue directly with them.
  • Contact the vehicle's manufacturer. Most manufacturers have a customer service section that may be able to assist. After reporting a concern to the manufacturer, distributor or supplier you should allow a reasonable time for them to reply and address the concern.

How do I make a report?

You can report a road vehicle safety or non-compliance issue three ways, by:

  • submitting a safety or non-compliance concern from the New Applications tab while signed in to ROVER, the department's online application and approval portal
  • submitting an online vehicle safety or non-compliance report without a ROVER account
  • downloading the MSWord or PDF form and sending the completed form to the department via email or post. (You will be notified by email that your report has been received.)

    The Director Compliance and Enforcement Vehicle Safety Operations Branch Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts GPO Box 594

    Canberra ACT 2601

When a vehicle safety or non-compliance report is submitted, a record is created in ROVER. Each report is assigned a unique reference number for identification in the format REP-YYYY-MM-######.

If a report requires further information and the report hasn't been submitted anonymously, we will email the entity/individual who is the subject of the report.

Collection, use and disclosure of personal information?

The department collects, and may use the personal information in a Vehicle Safety or Non-Compliance Report to assist in identifying systemic vehicle safety and legislative non-compliance issues. In some cases, the information provided may be used to support compliance monitoring and various enforcement responses.

If you do not want your report to be disclosed, select 'no' to the question 'Can this information be disclosed to other parties?' If you are agreeable to having your information disclosed in some circumstances and not others, select 'no' and add an explanation in the free text field 'Comments and any other matters' at the end of the report form.

Please note, when submitting a report, if you agree to disclosure, your personal information may be disclosed to:

  • vehicle manufacturers or suppliers
  • State and Territory vehicle registration authorities
  • Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), or State and Territory consumer protection agencies
  • Australian Border Force
  • Australian Federal Police or State and Territory law enforcement bodies
  • State and Territory emergency services or Coroners.

Personal information may be disclosed to an overseas organisation. For example, where a vehicle manufacturer or supplier is outside of Australia.

If you provide personal medical information, it is likely to be disclosed. For example, if you report a crash where you were injured and we provide your report to the vehicle manufacturer, your injury information will be included.

For more information on how the department protects privacy, please see the department's online privacy policy. This policy contains information regarding complaint handling processes and how to access or seek correction of personal information held by the department.

Further information and resources

For information about how we undertake compliance and enforcement under RVS legislation please refer to the Compliance and Enforcement webpage.

For information relating to vehicle recalls please refer to the Vehicle Recalls website.

The department is not a consumer advocate and is unable to assist with disputes involving dealerships or vehicle suppliers, compensation or re-imbursement of costs related to problems with your vehicle.

For issues relating to customer satisfaction, vehicle quality, warranty, repairs or durability please contact the relevant consumer protection agency in your state or territory. Contact details for these agencies can be found on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission website.

Resources