HSE Inspections: How often? When? What to expect?

Workplace inspections carried out by the HSE help improve Health and Safety standards by investigating injuries, diseases, dangerous occurrences and concerns raised by members of the public, workers or others. Whatever the reason for the visit, the HSE will check the standards of health, safety and welfare within an organisation and provide advice on preventing illness and injury at work. 

In particular where;

• There is evidence that Health and Safety is managed poorly
• The organisation operate in one of a number of hazardous industries 
• The HSE wants to investigate a specific incident or complaint

The HSE and local authorities also carry out visits on a handful of businesses to;

• Do random spot checks on compliance 
• Visit new businesses or premises to make an assessment of risks
• Target geographical areas or sectors to concentrate on priorities such as workplace transport or bad backs
• Keep abreast of new developments and processes or for training purposes

How the HSE inspect

The HSE will inspect and target duty holders in sectors which have the most serious risks or where the HSE have information that health and safety is a significant concern, this could be due to previous performance, concerns raised by workers or the public, incident investigations or reports of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences. 

When the HSE inspect they will:

• speak to the relevant people, this could be a manager, supervisor, worker or employee representative
• observe various workplace activities, conditions and practices
• assess relevant documents, if deemed necessary
• check whether risk controls are effective
• identify any breaches of the law
• consider appropriate enforcement

The HSE are not able to inspect all of the business across the UK - this would total to roughly 5.2 businesses. So they target sectors and activities that post the most serious risks and where the risks are the least well controlled. 

There are also a number of strategies in place for specific industry sectors that define key Health and Safety issues relevant to the sector that consider the size of the industry, the demographics, death/injury and ill-health rates and the potential possible risks. Inspectors will concentrate on these issues when deciding how well risks are managed in these particular sectors. 

There are certain higher-risk industries that are subject to a permissioning regime, where the HSE take a risk-based approach for intervention plans using information from a number of sources including; safety cases and reports, previous performance and intrinsic hazard. 

When?

The HSE consider all Health and Safety concerns and then make a risk-based decision when they decide what/if any actions need to be taken. They may not investigate everything that is reported to them, only the most serious of cases that fit in line with their incident selection criteria. 

If the HSE investigate, then they will gather the facts, identify the immediate and underlying causes and lessons to be learned, take actions to prevent it from happening again, see if any legislation has been breached and consider the appropriate enforcement if the law is being flouted. 

Depending on the circumstances, an investigation could range from an enquiry by a single HSE inspector or a team of inspectors investigating the incident or complaint. This may also include third parties such as the police. 

When an inspector visits…

The HSE provides this leaflet detailing what employers (or those who have duties under Health and Safety law) and employees (and their representatives) might expect when an inspector visits their workplace. 

In this leaflet, they detail what will happen during the visit, after the visit, recovering costs from the HSE, what to do if you don’t agree with your HSE invoice and what to do if you have any complaint about your visit. 

If you think that you might need to report an incident, then please follow this link to see whether you should report it. Duty holders should also report certain serious workplace accidents, occupational diseases and specified dangerous occurrences (near misses) under RIDDOR. 

Health and Safety Training

Workplace Health & Safety training is one of the easiest ways to work towards compliance with current legislation. Our Health and Safety course library encompasses a range of training for different industries to help them work safely and help your staff gain the knowledge and skills needed to carry out daily tasks confidently.