Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

Preparatory work
➤
meet with relevant managers and employee repre-
sentatives to discuss and agree the objectives and 
scope of the audit
➤
gather and consider documentation
➤
prepare and agree the audit procedure with 
managers.
On-site
➤
interviewing
➤
review and assessment of additional documents
➤
observation of physical conditions and work activities.
Conclusion 
➤
assemble the evidence 
➤
evaluate the evidence 
➤
write an audit report. 
7.10.3 Making 
judgements
It is essential to start with a relevant standard or bench-
mark against which the adequacy of a health and safety 
management system can be judged. If standards are 
not clear, assessment cannot be reliable. Audit judge-
ments should be informed by legal standards, HSE guid-
ance and applicable industry standards. HSG 65 sets 
out benchmarks for management arrangements and for 
the design of risk control systems. This book follows the 
same concepts.
Auditing should not be seen as a fault-fi nding 
activity. It should make a valuable contribution to the 
health and safety management system and to learning. It 
should recognize achievement as well as highlight areas 
where more needs to be done.
Scoring systems can be used in auditing along with 
judgements and recommendations. This can be seen 
as a useful way to compare sites or monitor progress 
over time. However, there is no evidence that quanti-
fi ed results produce a more effective response than the 
use of qualitative evidence. Indeed, the introduction of 
a scoring system can, the HSE believes, have a negative 
effect as it may encourage managers to place more 
emphasis on high scoring questions which may not be 
as relevant to the development of an effective health and 
safety management system.
To achieve the best results, auditors should be 
competent people who are independent of the area 
and of the activities being audited. External consultants 
can be used or staff from other areas of the organiza-
tion. An organization can use its own auditing system or 
one of the proprietary systems on the market or, since 
it is unlikely that any ready made system will provide a 
perfect fi t, a combination of both. With any scheme, cost 
and benefi ts have to be taken into account. Common 
problems include:
➤
systems which are too general in their approach. 
These may need considerable work to make them fi t 
the needs and risks of the organization

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