Health And Safety Inspections Explained

If you're a business owner in the UK, you will probably already be familiar with the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) who enforce safety standards in UK workplaces. The HSE defines 'enforcement' broadly; it includes offering advice and important information, issuing warnings, serving notices and pursuing prosecution when necessary to serviced offices London or wherever they happen to be based.

Inspection

HSE inspectors are responsible for observing working conditions and making recommendations based on these inspections. They interview employees and look at offices records to achieve this.
Investigators

If an HSE inspector believes further investigation is warranted or if there has been a specific incident or complaint that requires further enquiry, the following procedure is enforced:

• The inspector completes the inspection more or less as above.
• The inspector identifies both apparent and underlying causes for the incident and anything that can be done to prevent future recurrences.
• The inspector must decide whether any specific breaches of Health and Safety legislation have been made, and whether it would be appropriate in this context to enforce the law.
• An appropriate course of action is then decided, once the breach has been identified. This may include issuing a warning, withdrawing permits, imposing restrictions or prosecution.

Minor, singular infringements are usually followed up by a single HSE inspector. Major infringements and wide spread cultures of neglect are instead investigated by a team of HSE inspectors.
Enforcement

The investigation may conlude that enforcement is appropriate. The methods of enforcement available to the HSE include:

• Serving notice to duty holders.
• Withdrawing approvals for businesses.
• The alteration of any licences, conditions or exemptions that the business holds.
• Issuing simple warnings.
• Providing additional information or training, either in person or in writing.
• Prosecution.

Penalties

Duty holders may eventually fall foul of a court case, resulting in penalties regardless whether they're at serviced offices Soho, serviced offices Mayfair or wherever they're located or however they're structured. Though jail time may result, this tends to only be true of extreme cases. Usually, the courts will pass down a fine for a breach of the law, and this is usually independent of the compensation that will be paid to any victims of the negligence.