During your health and safety inspection, the examiner will want to see that you have put in place measures to ensure all employees are aware of any safety hazards, as is required by the law.

The inspector will want to talk to your employees or health and safety representatives if possible unless it is inappropriate.  Your employees or representatives should also be given the opportunity to speak to the inspector alone if they wish.

Inspectors will then give employees/representatives information about matters affecting health and safety and general welfare of employees in your particular workplace or the activity that takes place there.

The type of information the inspector will give over includes: matters the inspector considers to be of serious concern; details of enforcement action taken by the inspector; and an intention to prosecute the business after the dutyholder has been informed.

What Is It They Are Looking For?

It is possible that your inspector will decide to visit your workplace without any forewarning, but for a routine inspection it is usually the case that they will phone ahead to check that the relevant staff are available before they visit.

If you are expecting a visit, it is a good idea to prepare so that you can show them what you are doing to meet your legal requirements. If there are any specific hazards you are aware of, you may also want to bring them to the inspectors notice and ask their advice on what you should do to rectify the problem. You may also want to ask if there is anything further you can do to procedures you already have in place.

The main point of the inspector is to make sure you are complying with health and safety laws and help you solve any areas where you are failing to do so. They are also there to answer any technical questions you have, or direct you to other resources if needs be. Taking action against you is their last resort.

They will mainly be checking that you are aware of the main risks to your employees and that you are taking suitable action to prevent risk. For this, they will usually check: your workplace; work activities; your health and safety management; and if you are complying to the health and safety laws.

You also need to ensure you can quickly provide if required: your safety policy; any risk assessments; records of inspections of equipment which are required by law, for example lifting equipment; written safe working methods; and records of safety training carried out.

What Do You Think?

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