This is a simplified question and answer
section on the auditing of workplace
health and safety.
Q. Is there a specific legal requirement
to carry out safety inspections?
A. No. However various legal duties
placed on employers are difficult to
satisfy unless some form of inspection
or other monitoring of standards is
carried out.
Q. Can we carry out audits ourselves or
should we use a consultant?
A. Audits are generally recognised as
best being done by someone who has the
knowledge and experience, who is
impartial and who is respected by the
people being audited. Consultants can
satisfy these and other criteria but
equally there may be people with the
desirable attributes within the
organisation.
Q. How many different forms of workplace
audits or inspections are there?
A. Safety audits or inspections can take
many forms. Every time a manager walks
around the area they are responsible for
should be a form of inspection as they
should be on the lookout for hazards,
unsafe practices, etc. At the other end
of the scale, perhaps every three
months, a manager, with people from the
work area, should use some form of
checklist to carry out a more structured
inspection. There are various ways of
carrying out inspections in between.
What is important is to use a variety of
techniques developed through experience
to achieve good safety standards in your
own business. A good audit system will
enable the auditor to obtain all the
necessary information without excessive
decisions being needed at the workplace.
Many commercial systems exist, either
computer based or paper based, which
provide an off the shelf solution. Most
of these can be tailored to suit the
individual requirements of a particular
audit. The expense of these systems must
be balanced against the very real time
and cost burden of designing a system
in-house. It is important to remember
that the record of the audit may be
needed to prove compliance with the
requirements of the Management of Health
and Safety at Work Regulations 1992, and
thus must, of itself, be adequate and
credible.
What
is employers-solicitors ?