Ensure Your Construction Site Passes an HSE Inspection

How to Ensure Your Construction Site Passes an HSE Inspection

The Health and Safety Executive carries out site inspections to maintain and improve health and safety standards across the UK. According to the HSE, their investigators follow these general rules during all of their site visits:

• Gathering and establishing the facts.
• Identify immediate and underlying causes/lessons to be learned.
• Take any actions to prevent recurrence.
• Identify any breaches of health and safety legislation.
• Consider if appropriate enforcement is required.

The frequency of HSE Inspections depends on the nature of the work taking place. For example, an administrative office will be classified as low risk and will have fewer inspections vs a construction site which is classed as a higher risk with rapidly changing variables.

As there are over 5.5 million private sector businesses alone in the UK, it is a near impossible task for the HSE to inspect every business regularly. In response to this, their strategy is to spot check and target sectors which have the highest risks involved – which includes Construction Sites.

How do you prepare a Construction Site for an HSE inspection?

Companies that stay on top of their health and safety requirements at all times not only have an easier time when their HSE inspection lands – but on average there is much less to cover and address before the inspection (meaning much less stress!). Here is our round-up of the most important topics you should consider when preparing your construction site for an HSE inspection.

 

Responsibility

Who is responsible for overseeing everything health and safety within the construction site?

Do they have the relevant qualifications and skillset to manage this?

It is integral that your appointed Health and Safety officer is not only up to date with the current health and safety laws, but also has the necessary skills and experience in managing health and safety to the scale your site requires. Having this delegated responsibility not only reduces risks of failure once your HSE inspection arrives, but will also reduce overall health and safety-related costs, such as incidents and accidents (which can be eye-wateringly expensive).

 

Construction Health and Safety Policies

Do you have a health and safety policy in place?

Are your employees aware of this policy and its procedures?

Your Construction Health and Safety policy should clearly state who is responsible for what, when they are responsible and how. This policy should aim to be as simple as possible in order to ensure every person within the business can understand and adhere to it. Areas which should be included are:

• Statement of Intent.
• Health and Safety Responsibilities.
• Arrangements and Procedures in place.
• How risks and hazards will be eliminated or reduced.
• CDM Regulation and compliance.

 

TIP

Some Construction Health and Safety providers include an annual production of your Health and Safety Policy within their Safety Retainer Packages. Check with your provider to see if this is covered.

 

Risk Assessments

Assessing the risks posed by the work environment is not only essential in preparation for an HSE Inspection but also to prevent these costly risks and incidents from occurring.

 

Did you know?

A staggering 38.8 million working days are lost each year due to work-related accidents and illnesses.

 

A risk assessment is completed to identify any possible dangers or accidents which could occur on the construction site and detail the preventative measures put in place to stop this occurring. Questions you should consider whilst completing a risk assessment include:

• How serious could the damage be?
• How could an accident occur and who could be affected?
• Which locations of the construction site are at risk?
• What measures are already in place?
• What counter-measures can you put in place?

Once your risk assessment is complete, the next step is to ensure that for every risk you have detailed, you have taken all the relevant steps to reduce the chance of them occurring with effective counter-measures. Check if you have addressed the following:

• Have you informed your employees of any changes to the Health and Safety procedures?
• Have your employees received the relevant training and information?
• Does your construction site offer the correct and compliant facilities?
• Do you have arrangements in place if an incident takes place?

 

Legal Requirements and Compliance

Staying up to date with the latest legal requirements is essential in order to pass an HSE Inspection. You can find the latest guidance below:

• The Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA)
• Work at Height Regulations
• Manual Handling Operations Regulations
• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH)
• Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER)
• Construction (Design and Management) Regulations
• Reporting Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)

 

Need assistance preparing for a Construction Site HSE Inspection?

Our team at Hurst Setter have over 30 years of assisting construction companies across the UK with passing their HSE Inspections.

Get FREE advice from a member of our Health and Safety team now.