Health & Safety Audits - What's the Law?
There are over one million injuries at work every year in the UK and many of these are totally preventable. Preventing accidents and ill health caused at work can be greatly assisted by the use of effective health and safety procedures, including Health and Safety Audits.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
Applicable to a wide range of businesses and organisations, these regulations require all employers to provide healthy and safe conditions for employers to work in. In order to fully establish the health and safety status of your organisation, a health and safety audit is recommended.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
These regulations make reference to both health & safety risk assessments and the need to provide health and safety training. Hence a safety audit can be very useful when there is an established work regime that is at risk from safety hazards OR to establish whether Health & Safety Training has actually worked.
A health and safety audit can also tell you:
Have employees understood what they need to do in terms of health and safety?
Are they actually working safely in all aspect of their job as they have been trained? i.e. has there been a change in behaviour and practice for better or worse? To evaluate this you may need to carry out periodical health and safety audits; this usually involve monitoring the workplace and observing what is really happening
Has there been any improvement in your organisation's health and safety performance? Also check the accident book and the total number of days off work as an indicator
Employee feedback is also very important. Ask staff how they really feel about safety standards at work. Use anonymous feedback forms to encourage candid and honest replies
Disclaimer: The Health & Safety Group Ltd have provided the enclosed information on the basis that the content contained within these documents is to the best of our knowledge accurate at the time of publication. The Health & Safety Group Ltd does not accept any liability for the accuracy of the information.