If you have gone looking for the rules and come away confused, you are not doing anything wrong. There are genuinely two versions of AS/NZS 3760 being referenced across New Zealand right now, by sources that both look authoritative.
Why there are two versions in circulation
Standards New Zealand sells AS/NZS 3760:2022. That is the current edition, jointly published by Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand.
WorkSafe's guidance page links to AS/NZS 3760:2010. That page carries a "last updated" date of 25 May 2018 — it simply has not been revised since the new edition came out.
Neither source is wrong, exactly. WorkSafe's page is just out of date, and because it is the regulator's page, its link gets repeated across the industry. That is how a superseded edition stays in circulation.
The important point that resolves most of the confusion: neither edition is law. AS/NZS 3760 is a voluntary standard. The legal requirement, under HSWA and the Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010, is that equipment is electrically safe and maintained. The standard is one recognised way of demonstrating that — which means you cannot be prosecuted for using the "wrong" edition of a document that was never mandatory.
Which one should you work to?
The 2022 edition. Three reasons:
- It is the current published standard, and current good practice is the benchmark you will be measured against if anything goes wrong.
- Client prequalification systems and larger principal contractors increasingly specify it by name.
- It contains the risk-based flexibility that most businesses actually benefit from — including the extended low-risk intervals.
If your provider is still quoting the 2010 edition at you, it is a fair question to ask why.
What changed in the 2022 edition
At a high level, the 2022 revision moved the standard further towards a risk-based approach rather than fixed intervals applied by category. The practical effects most New Zealand businesses notice:
- Greater emphasis on risk assessment in setting inspection and testing intervals, rather than reading an interval off a table and applying it site-wide.
- Extended intervals available for genuinely low-risk equipment — up to five years for stationary equipment in a benign environment where a documented assessment supports it. For an office with a lot of fixed IT, this can substantially reduce ongoing cost.
- Clearer treatment of the competent person requirement — who may carry out testing, and what they need to understand.
- Updated guidance on record keeping, reflecting that the register, not the tag, is the evidence.
- Alignment with associated standards, including how it sits alongside AS/NZS 3012 for construction and demolition sites.
We are describing the direction of the changes, not reproducing the standard. AS/NZS 3760 is copyrighted and sold by Standards New Zealand. If the detail matters to your programme — and if you are relying on extended intervals, it does — buy the current edition.
Does an old tag become invalid?
No. A tag applied under the 2010 edition does not stop being evidence of a test on the day it was done. Nothing needs to be re-tested purely because a new edition was published.
What changes is the framework you use going forward. In practice, the sensible transition is to move to the 2022 approach at each item's next scheduled test, rather than doing anything special in between.
Do you need to buy a copy?
If you are engaging a third party to test for you: no. That is their job, and part of what you are paying for is that they work to the current standard. It is reasonable to ask them to confirm in writing which edition they work to.
If you are testing in-house — training up a staff member and buying a tester — then yes, buy it. It is a few hundred dollars, it is a legitimate business expense, and the alternative is running a compliance programme based on second-hand summaries from websites. Including this one.
Related: how often should you test and tag? and is test and tag legally required in New Zealand?