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Introduction to this document

Dealing with health and safety inspectors checklist

If you’ve heard that a health and safety inspector (from the HSE or local authority) is intending to visit, you’ll want to be prepared. Our checklist will help you do just that. To keep it simple, it’s structured as a list of dos and don’ts.

Dos

The first part is sub-divided into tips to help you before, during and after the inspection. The preparation section covers obvious suggestions, such as tidying up and gathering together useful paperwork. But it also includes less obvious tips based on our experience of dealing with inspectors, e.g. briefing employees on how to receive the inspector, and checking whether the visit is part of a specific campaign. The tips to follow during the inspection will help you to give a good impression. The points cover how you should promote the positives and also how to deal with problems found during the visit. The last section of dos covers dealing with correspondence after the visit, including any notices issued.

Don’ts

The final section of tips is a list of approaches which should not be taken. Not all of these are obvious, for example we suggest that you never keep an inspector waiting because they’ll use the time to start hazard spotting in your premises!