What does PAR
non-compliance
cost you?
From 5 September 2026, the Physical Agents Regulations apply uncapped criminal fines, R200/day continuous penalties, and 12 months imprisonment for contraventions. Estimate your portfolio's exposure below.
Your portfolio
Adjust the inputs — the exposure recalculates live.
Estimated exposure
1 site × 5 regulations × R200/day
Daily
R 1 000
while non-compliant, post-deadline
30-day
R 30 000
if uncorrected for a month
Annual
R 365 000
full year, all sites
Plus the consequences money doesn't cover
- Up to 12 months imprisonment for the responsible party — criminal liability under regulation 20.
- Operational shutdown — Department of Employment & Labour inspectors can block, barricade or fence off any part of your workplace at short notice, independent of fines.
- Civil liability — third parties harmed by inadequate emergency lighting can pursue damages claims. COIDA exposure increases.
- Uncapped criminal fines — the R1,000 cap that applied under the 1987 environmental regulations was removed in PAR 2024.
Time pressure
110 days to PAR deadline · 5 September 2026
Site assessment → design → installation → commissioning typically takes 6–12 weeks. You have 26 days to start a new assessment before the 12-week window closes (latest safe start: 13 Jun 2026).
Methodology
How we calculate exposure
- The daily continuous penalty under PAR 2024 is R200 per day per regulation contravened — a 40× increase over the 1987 environmental regulations (R5/day).
- The Regulations contain 16 distinct compliance obligations covering exposure monitoring, medical screening, hierarchy of controls, PPE, employee training, manufacturer/supplier duties, and a 40-year record-keeping mandate.
- For non-compliant sites, this calculator estimates the number of regulations likely in breach based on the current emergency-lighting state. Real-world breach counts may be higher.
- Maximum imprisonment is 12 months, criminal fines are uncapped — the 1987 R1,000 cap was removed in PAR 2024.
- Department of Employment and Labour inspectors can issue prohibition notices that block, barricade or fence off any part of your workplace at short notice — operational disruption is independent of fines and runs at your cost.
- This calculator is illustrative. Final exposure depends on inspector enforcement decisions and the specific regulations breached. Independent legal advice is recommended for site-specific compliance.
Avoid this
Book a SANS-certified site assessment.
The 5-question compliance check takes 90 seconds. We'll grade your portfolio, flag the gaps, and a specialist will follow up with a site-specific quote.