What is the difference between a Health & Safety audit and inspection?

As a business owner, you have a legal responsibility to keep your employees, and anyone else that visits your site safe at all times.

To ensure you're doing this, a Health & Safety inspection will be carried out on your site. These will point out any discrepancies within your Health & Safety management.

To ensure you’re dealing with workplace Health & Safety correctly, you can perform an audit. Whilst inspections and audits have similar objectives, there are differences between both that you need to be aware of.

In this guide we'll discuss what inspections and audits are, why they should be conducted, and key differences between the two.

What is a Health & Safety inspection?

A Health & Safety inspection is an inspection of a workplace; conducted by an external authority, such as the HSE. They are performed to ensure that companies are complying with Health & Safety legislation, as well as providing a safe place for their employees to work in.

Inspections are typically performed following a complaint made by an individual, or after an accident occurs. As part of the inspection, the external authority conducts interviews and performance evaluations with employees and senior staff - to ensure compliance is met throughout a business.

What’s involved in a Health & Safety inspection?

To ensure you pass your Health & Safety inspection, it's important you know what it involves; including what the inspector will be checking and assessing. Once you're aware of this, you'll be in a better position to pass an inspection.

During a workplace inspection, the assessor will look at whether:

• Workplace machinery is correctly maintained and guarded.
• Workplace systems are safe.
• Hazardous substances are stored and used safely.
• Staff are trained correctly on manual handling, such as using the correct aids.
• Fire safety precautions are in place and escape routes are clear.
• There's a first aid box in place, and what's inside.

What is a Health & Safety audit?

A Health & Safety audit is a business’s own analysis of their workplace Health & Safety processes. Audits aim to fully evaluate the safety management systems within a company to ensure people’s safety whilst at work.

During an audit, you will need to review the following:

• Policies and procedures.
• Risk assessments.
• Employee training and communication.
• Accident and incident reporting.
• Investigations.
• Corrective and preventive actions.
• Records.

Remember, a competent person must conduct your business’s audit. This is an employee who has the knowledge, experience and training to ensure you comply with your industry’s Health & Safety regulations.

Meaning, they’ll be able to pick up on any hazard you’ve not controlled - and work out how to reduce or remove its risk of harm.

Are Health & Safety audits a legal requirement for businesses to conduct?

No, Health & Safety audits are not a legal requirement for businesses to conduct.

The main piece of legislation in the UK that applies to Health & Safety audits is the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. This Act states that employers have a legal responsibility to provide a safe working space for all their employees, as well as other visitors to the site.

Whilst the Act does not state you have to legally perform an audit, conducting one can help you assess present hazards on-site. Consequently, you can decide how to reduce or remove the risk of harm - and ultimately create a safer workplace for your employees.

What are the benefits of businesses carrying out their own Health & Safety inspection or audit?

Your business can gain many benefits when conducting a Health & Safety inspection or audit. For example, it helps a company evaluate its overall workplace safety performance. And as a result, they can assess what areas need improvement.

Audits also help to:

• Remind employees of why Health & Safety standards are important.
• Ensure compliance with UK Health & Safety legislation and relevant laws.
• Ensure all areas of Health & Safety management are controlled sufficiently, such as incident reporting.
• Remove the risk of employees being harmed, and potential legal action coming your way.
• Improve your employees' confidence in them - specifically that you care about their wellbeing and occupational health.

What are the differences between Health & Safety inspections and Health & Safety audits?

There are a few differences between Health & Safety inspections and Health & Safety audits. Ensure you’re aware of them so you know which one your business may require.

Let's discuss each of them in more detail:

Both are focused on different areas

One of the main differences between an inspection and an audit is the areas of focus. The primary focus of a safety inspection is to identify hazards within a workplace. Meanwhile, audits concentrate on evaluating the processes a company adopts to prevent identified hazards.

For example, an audit is conducted to measure the effectiveness of a safety management system, or an individual area - such as how effective your risk assessments are at controlling safety hazards.

On the other hand, an inspection may specifically focus on how well your company’s machine guards are performing - for example, if a complaint has been made about a lack of equipment protection in your workplace.

They aren't carried out at the same frequencies

Another key difference between the two is the frequency of which both are conducted. Health & Safety inspections are typically undertaken on a more frequent basis than audits.

Health & Safety inspectors have a right to inspect all workplace areas at least once every three months, with reasonable notice being given to the employer in writing. A week's notice is usually sufficient.

However, more frequent inspections can be conducted if a company has ongoing safety issues, or if it's a high-risk workplace. There are no specific timeframes for when Health & Safety audits should be carried out. But, they tend to be undertaken regularly. Many companies choose to perform their workplace audit annually.

Audits are more complex

Another difference between the two is that Health & Safety audits are typically more complex.

Whereas an inspection will focus on hazards within the workplace, audits are more of a comprehensive evaluation of Health & Safety management.

This is because an audit is usually conducted at a different frequency to an inspection, with more thorough tests performed around the whole site.

The outcomes of an inspection and audit are always different

A further difference between a Health & Safety audit and inspection is the outcomes.

The outcome of an inspection will give the employer a list of potential and current hazards within the workplace that need controlling. For example, if they fail to use personal protective equipment where necessary.

Whereas, an audit will provide you with recommendations on how to make your workplace safer as a whole. For example, not using a certain material in the future because it's damaging to your employees' health.

You don't need to carry out a Health & Safety audit...

Because the UK's leading auditors can carry it out for you.

With Peninsula's SafeCheck, you can fully outsource your workplace audit to the experts - saving you time, stress, and money.

With a SafeCheck audit, you'll receive a detailed report outlining all the risks within your business, and how to fix them. And it's all yours for a one-off payment of £295.

Plus, Peninsula also provides:

• Full documentation service.
• Training.
• Risk assessments.

Tap below to learn more about expert workplace audits: