Who Carries Out a Health and Safety Audit?

A safety audit will examine the whole organization in order to test whether it is meeting its safety aims and objectives. It will examine the hierarchies, safety planning processes, decision making and implementation as well as all areas of safety programme planning.

Safety audits can be conducted by safety advisers and/or HR specialists, but the more managers, employees and trade union representative are involved  the better. Audits are carried under the auspices of a health and safety committee with its members taking an active part in conducting them.

Managers can also be held responsible for conducting audits within their departments and, even better, individual members of these department can be trained to carry out audits in particular areas. This conduct of an audit will be facilitated if check-lists are prepared and a simple form used to record results.

Some organisations also use outside agencies to conduct independent audits

What is covered by a health and safety audit?

A health and safety audit should cover the following.

1. Policies

• Do health and safety policy meet legal requirement
• Are senior manager committed to health and safety?
• How committed are other managers, team leaders and supervisors to health and safety?
• Is there an health and safety committee? If not, why not?
• How effective is the committee in getting things done?

2. Procedures

• How effectively do the procedures:
• Support the implementation of health and safety policies?
• Communicate the need for good health and safety practices?
• Provide for systematic risk assessments?
• Ensure that accidents are investigated thoroughly?
• Record data on health and safety that is used to evaluate performance and initiate action?
• Ensure the health and safety considerations are given proper weight when designing systems of work and operational processes  (including the design of equipment and work stations, the specification for the product or service, and the use of material)?
• Provide safety training, especially induction training and training when jobs or working methods are changed?

3. Safety Practices

• To what extent do health and safety practices in all areas of the organization conform to the requirement of the Health and Safety at Work Act and the specific requirement of the various regulations and Codes of Practice?
• What risk assessment have been carried out? What were these findings? What actions were taken?
• What is the health and safety performance of the organisations as shown by the performance indicators? Is the trend positive or negative? If the latter, What is being done about it?
• How thoroughly are accidents investigated? What steps have been taken to prevent their recurrence?
• What is the evidence that managers and supervisors are really concerned about health and safety?

What should be done with the audit?

The audit should cover the questions above but its purpose is to generate action. Those conducting the audit will have to asses priorities and costs and draw up action programmes for approval by the board.