Quick premises health and safety checklist

If you’re aware that you’re going to have a safety inspection, you’ll want to give the place a quick once over. That’s where our Quick Premises Health and Safety Checklist comes in.

How to use the form

This checklist is designed to cover the basic issues which will raise immediate concerns with a visiting inspector. Although it’s been written to help you before an inspector’s visit, you can use the form any time you want to do a quick check of health and safety standards.

It should take about half an hour to complete. Once you’ve used it to spot any problems, you should then make any necessary improvements before the inspector arrives.

Clearly, if there are any special types of hazard which present a significant risk at your location, you’ll need to cover those as well.

What’s included?

The form is divided into three sections. The first covers premises condition. The issues covered include “red flags” such as missing guards on machinery or obstructed escape routes.

Note. Although health and safety inspectors don’t enforce fire safety matters, we’ve included basic fire safety issues for the sake of completeness and because it gives a poor first impression if you have missing fire extinguishers and blocked exits; not to mention the fact that they will inform the Fire & Rescue Service if they see serious fire safety problems.

The second section of the form covers the types of document you should have available for the inspector. The third section covers various other issues, including whether safety signs are displayed, first aid and the storage of hazardous substances.