Work Health and Safety independent prosecutor Aaron Guilfoyle is considering whether anyone will face major criminal charges relating to reckless or serious breaches of work health and safety laws after a referral from the coroner.

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The penalties include fines of up to $3 million for companies and up to $600,000 or five years’ jail for individuals.

It is understood that he won’t consider industrial manslaughter charges, also brought in after the Dreamworld tragedy, as they relate to the death of a worker caused by a company’s actions.

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace said Mr Guilfoyle had 12 months to decide whether to prosecute.

However it is not expected to take that long, with the coroner’s report already considered a solid investigation of the facts.

“Obviously he has a lot of pages to read, a lot of evidence that was presented,” she said.

“He’s a very experienced prosecutor and I’m sure that as soon as a decision is made, he will lay whatever breaches is necessary.”

It comes as Ms Grace assured people visiting theme parks this week they had nothing to fear, despite the scathing findings in yesterday’s coroner’s report into the Dreamworld deaths.

“The regulations that we have brought in three years ago are extensive,” she said.

“It has all of the checks and the recommendations that the coroner handed down.

“All of the theme parks are audited every year, they’ve been audited in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and they were audited soon after the tragedy at Dreamworld because we want to ensure public confidence.”

Ms Grace said Queensland theme parks now had the highest levels of safety internationally.

“I can assure the public that we will ensure that that is maintained at these theme parks,” she said.

Asked whether the state accepted it had failed as a regulator in the lead up to the Dreamworld deaths, Ms Grace said she accepted the findings of the coroner

“But we need to look forward now and what we have implemented over the last three years has brought about world’s best practice health and safety standards in amusement rides,” she said.

Asked if the state owed the families an apology after the coroner’s finding that the Thunder River Rapids ride had not been properly checked in 30 years, Ms Grace said Ardent Leisure had to take responsibility for the inquest findings.

“Of course our heart goes out to the families and this is a tragedy that we had hoped would never have happened and I will do all I can as minister and I have done over the last three years … to ensure that we are meeting world’s best practice because we don’t want to ever have this happen again,” she said.

Work Health and Safety now conducts two-month-long annual audits of all six major theme parks in Queensland, and has employed an extra 33 workers, including three dedicated and specialist engineers to oversee the regulation of theme parks.

Ms Grace said training had improved and it was also standard now to engage international specialise engineers to inspect amusement rides, with many of the rides designed and manufactured overseas.

From May last year, new amusement ride regulations kicked in that mandate major inspections of rides every 10 years, stipulate mandatory elements to be covered in training for ride operators and require detailed logbooks to be kept, as well as comprehensive safety cases for managing risks.

And a new code of conduct for the industry is being finished, as a national review of Australian standards is planned for the first time in a decade.