Health and Safety Audits: Types, Process and Why They Matter for Your Business

Health and safety audits are one of the most effective tools available to UK businesses for managing workplace risk, maintaining legal compliance and building a culture where safety is taken seriously. Yet many organisations – particularly small and medium-sized enterprises – either overlook them entirely or treat them as a box-ticking exercise rather than a genuine opportunity for improvement.

In 2024, the Health and Safety Executive conducted over 14,200 unannounced workplace inspections across Great Britain. Nearly a third resulted in formal enforcement action. For businesses found to be non-compliant, the consequences can be severe: unlimited fines, enforcement notices, reputational damage and – in the most serious cases – prosecution of individual directors.

A well-conducted health and safety audit helps you identify problems before an inspector does – and gives you documented evidence that your organisation takes its legal duties seriously. This guide explains what health and safety audits involve, the different types available, how to conduct one effectively, and when it makes sense to bring in external expertise.

What Is a Health and Safety Audit?

A health and safety audit is a systematic, documented review of your organisation’s safety practices, policies and procedures. Think of it as a comprehensive health check for your workplace – an objective assessment of how well your existing safety measures are working and where gaps or weaknesses may exist.

Unlike a risk assessment, which focuses on identifying hazards and evaluating the risks they pose, an audit takes a broader view. It examines your entire health and safety management system: whether you have the right policies in place, whether those policies are being followed in practice, and whether your safety arrangements are achieving the outcomes they are supposed to.

A thorough health and safety audit will typically assess:

• Compliance with relevant UK health and safety legislation, including the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and associated regulations

• The design and effectiveness of your health and safety management system

• Whether written policies and procedures reflect what actually happens on the ground

• The quality and completeness of your risk assessments

• Training records, competency and workforce engagement

• Physical workplace conditions, equipment maintenance and housekeeping

• Incident and near-miss reporting, investigation and follow-up

• Management commitment, leadership and accountability for safety

The output is a detailed report that identifies non-conformances, ranks them by priority and provides actionable recommendations for improvement. A good audit does not just tell you what is wrong – it gives you a clear roadmap for putting things right.

Why Health and Safety Audits Matter for UK Businesses

Legal Compliance and Enforcement Protection

Under UK law, every employer has a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees and anyone else affected by their work activities. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 specifically require employers to have arrangements in place for planning, organising, controlling, monitoring and reviewing their safety measures.

Regular health and safety audits provide documented evidence that you are meeting these obligations. If an incident occurs and your organisation faces investigation, being able to demonstrate a structured, systematic approach to safety management – backed by audit records – can make a significant difference to how the HSE and the courts view your case.

Financial Protection

Workplace incidents are expensive. Beyond the human cost, businesses face direct costs including compensation claims, legal fees, increased insurance premiums and HSE fines. The indirect costs are often higher still: lost productivity, staff absence, damaged equipment, management time spent on investigations and the impact on morale.

The HSE estimates that workplace injuries and ill health cost UK employers approximately £18.8 billion per year. Proactive auditing helps organisations identify and address hazards before they result in incidents – a far more cost-effective approach than dealing with the consequences after the event.

Winning and Retaining Business

For many organisations, demonstrating robust health and safety management is a commercial necessity. Clients, contractors and supply chain partners increasingly require evidence of compliance before awarding contracts or approving suppliers. Certifications such as ISO 45001, SafeContractor and CHAS all involve audit-based assessments – and a track record of internal auditing makes these processes considerably smoother.

Building a Positive Safety Culture

Regular audits send a clear message to your workforce: safety matters here. When employees see leadership investing time and resources in reviewing safety arrangements, it reinforces the idea that their wellbeing is a priority. The audit process itself – particularly employee interviews and observations – provides an opportunity to engage workers, gather their insights on hazards and demonstrate that their input is valued.

Types of Health and Safety Audit

Not all audits are the same. Different types serve different purposes, and organisations often use a combination depending on their needs, sector and risk profile.

Compliance Audits

A compliance audit focuses specifically on whether your organisation is meeting its legal obligations under UK health and safety legislation. This includes checking that required documentation is in place (such as a written health and safety policy for organisations with five or more employees), that statutory training has been completed and recorded, that equipment inspections are up to date and that mandatory reporting requirements (such as RIDDOR) are being met.

Compliance audits are particularly valuable for identifying gaps that could trigger enforcement action if discovered during an HSE inspection.

Management System Audits

A management system audit takes a broader view, assessing the design and effectiveness of your overall health and safety management system. This type of audit evaluates whether you have the right structures, processes and controls in place – and whether they are actually working as intended.

For organisations pursuing or maintaining ISO 45001 certification, management system audits are essential. They examine elements such as leadership commitment, worker consultation, risk assessment processes, operational controls, performance monitoring and continual improvement.

Programme-Specific Audits

These audits focus on a single high-risk area or specific safety programme within your organisation. Examples include audits of COSHH arrangements, manual handling procedures, fire safety management, lone worker policies, contractor management or display screen equipment assessments.

Programme-specific audits are useful when you have concerns about a particular area, following an incident or near miss, or when regulatory changes require you to review specific arrangements.

Site or Facility Audits

A site audit concentrates on the physical conditions and working practices at a specific location. The auditor conducts a thorough walkthrough, observing work activities, checking equipment condition, assessing housekeeping standards and looking for immediate hazards such as blocked fire exits, trailing cables, inadequate lighting or improper storage.

For multi-site organisations, regular site audits help ensure consistent standards across all locations and identify site-specific issues that may not be apparent from head office.

The Health and Safety Audit Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Planning and Scoping

Effective audits begin with careful planning. This involves defining the audit’s objectives and scope: which areas, departments or programmes will be reviewed, what standards and criteria will be used, and what resources and timeframes are required. The scope should be realistic – trying to audit everything at once often leads to a superficial review that misses important details.

During planning, the audit team should review previous audit reports, incident records and any known issues to identify areas that warrant particular attention.

Step 2: Document Review

Before conducting any on-site work, auditors review the organisation’s safety documentation. This typically includes the health and safety policy, risk assessments, safe systems of work, training records, maintenance logs, inspection records, incident reports and meeting minutes. The purpose is to understand what the organisation says it does – so this can be compared against what actually happens in practice.

Step 3: On-Site Inspection and Data Collection

The core of the audit involves physically assessing the workplace. Auditors walk through the facility, observe work activities, check equipment and environmental conditions, and look for evidence of both compliance and non-compliance. Crucially, this phase includes speaking with employees at all levels – from shop floor workers to supervisors and managers – to understand how safety procedures function in practice and gather perspectives that may not be visible from documentation alone.

Findings are recorded systematically, noting the specific non-conformance, its location, the applicable standard or requirement, and any supporting evidence such as photographs.

Step 4: Reporting

Following the on-site work, the audit team compiles a formal report. A well-structured audit report includes an executive summary, a clear description of the scope and methodology, detailed findings with supporting evidence, a risk-based prioritisation of issues and practical recommendations for corrective action. The report should be objective, evidence-based and written in language that non-specialists can understand.

Step 5: Corrective Action Planning

The audit report is only valuable if it leads to action. A corrective action plan should be developed that addresses each finding, assigns clear responsibility, sets realistic deadlines and identifies the resources required. Effective corrective action focuses on root causes rather than symptoms – fixing the underlying issue rather than simply patching over the immediate problem.

Step 6: Follow-Up and Verification

Finally, the organisation must verify that corrective actions have been implemented effectively. This may involve follow-up inspections, document checks or a formal close-out process. Without verification, there is no assurance that the audit has actually improved safety – and the same issues are likely to recur.

Internal vs External Auditors: Which Approach Is Right for Your Business?

Internal Audits

Internal audits are conducted by your own employees – typically members of the health and safety team or trained staff from other departments. The advantages include intimate knowledge of your operations, lower direct costs and the ability to conduct audits frequently as part of ongoing monitoring.

The main limitation is objectivity. Internal auditors may be reluctant to report issues that reflect poorly on colleagues or management, may have blind spots due to familiarity, or may lack the specialist expertise needed to identify certain types of non-compliance.

External Audits

External audits are conducted by independent third-party consultants who bring fresh eyes, specialist expertise and complete objectivity. An experienced external auditor will have seen a wide range of workplaces and will quickly identify issues that internal staff may overlook. External audit reports also carry greater credibility with regulators, clients and certification bodies.

Many organisations use a combination of both approaches: frequent internal audits for ongoing monitoring, supplemented by periodic external audits for objective validation and specialist input.

How Arinite Can Help

At Arinite, health and safety auditing is one of our core services. Our team of Chartered (CMIOSH) and technically qualified consultants conduct audits for organisations of all sizes across the UK and internationally – from single-site SMEs to multi-national corporations with operations in 50+ countries.

Our audit services include:

• Comprehensive health and safety audits against UK legislation and best practice

• ISO 45001 gap analysis and certification support

• Programme-specific audits (fire safety, COSHH, manual handling, contractor management and more)

• Multi-site audit programmes with consistent standards across all locations

• Pre-inspection audits to prepare for HSE visits

• Follow-up verification and corrective action support

Every audit we conduct results in a clear, prioritised report with practical recommendations – not generic checklists, but tailored advice that reflects your specific operations, risks and business context.