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Health & Safety

HSE Audit Checklist

An internal HSE audit checklist for testing a site's health, safety and environmental arrangements: leadership and policy, risk assessments in date, training records, contractor control, PPE, emergency arrangements, incident investigation and environmental controls, then a housekeeping walk to see whether the paperwork matches the floor. Every check is graded conforms, observation, minor or major with its evidence, and the audit ends with a score, actions and two signatures.

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This audit tests the system behind the site — records, training, contractors, incident follow-up. For a walk that inspects the physical conditions area by area, use: Safety walk checklist

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Audit Details

Which site is being audited, why, by whom, and who represents the site.

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How to grade each check. Conforms — the arrangement is in place and working. Observation — it conforms, but there is a weakness or a better way worth noting. Minor nonconformity — a one-off lapse or a gap that does not undermine the arrangement as a whole. Major nonconformity — the arrangement is missing, or has broken down badly enough that people or the environment are exposed.

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Leadership, Policy and Planning

Whether there is a signed policy, named responsibilities, objectives and a management review.

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A register, a consultant's update service or a client requirement list all count.

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Risk Assessments and Safe Systems of Work

Whether the significant work is assessed, the assessments are in date, and workers know them.

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Pick three tasks you can see happening and look for their assessments.

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Training and Competence

Whether people on site have the induction, training and tickets their work needs, and whether the records prove it.

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Take two or three names on the walk and look them up.

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Contractor Control

How contractors are chosen, briefed, watched and held to account.

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Answer No and this part folds away.

6

Personal Protective Equipment

Whether PPE is chosen from the risk assessments, issued, looked after and worn.

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Harness inspection tags, respirator filters and hard-hat dates are quick to sample.

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Emergency Arrangements

Whether the site is ready for a fire, an injury, a spill or an evacuation.

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Incidents and Investigation

Whether injuries, near misses and dangerous events are reported, looked into and learned from.

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A log with no near misses in it usually means people are not reporting, not that nothing happened.

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Environmental Arrangements

Whether waste, spills, emissions and permits are under control.

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Housekeeping Walk

A short walk to test whether the arrangements above are working on the floor.

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Walk the main work areas with the site representative. You are testing the system, not doing a full inspection — note what you see and how it squares with the records.

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Findings, Actions and Sign-Off

The overall picture, what must be put right and by when, and agreement from both sides.

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The overall picture in a few lines, with the most important findings first.

Findings and actions

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An HSE audit checks whether a site's health, safety and environmental arrangements exist, are kept up and actually work. It is different from a safety inspection: an inspection looks at a guardrail, an audit asks how the site makes sure guardrails get checked, who does it, and where the record is. This checklist works through the arrangements most sites rely on — leadership and policy, risk assessments, training, contractors, PPE, emergencies, incidents and environmental controls — and then sends you onto the floor to test the paperwork against what people are really doing. Each check is graded the way auditors grade findings, with the evidence beside it, and the result is a score, a list of findings and actions with owners. Fill it in here and download a PDF without creating an account.

Grade each check like an auditor

Every check here has four answers, not two. Conforms means the arrangement is in place and working. An observation means it conforms but you noticed a weakness or a better way. A minor nonconformity is a lapse or gap that does not undermine the whole arrangement — one training record missing out of thirty. A major nonconformity means the arrangement is missing or has broken down — no one has looked at the risk assessments in three years, or incidents are not being investigated at all.

Anything short of a clean Conforms opens an evidence box. Write what you saw, read or were told, specifically enough that someone else could find it again: the document, the date, the area. A finding without evidence is just an opinion, and it will be argued with.

Records first, then the floor

Most of the audit is done with the site manager and the files: the policy, the risk assessment register, the training matrix, the contractor list, the incident log. That is where you see whether the system exists. The housekeeping walk at the end is where you see whether it works. Pick two or three people at random, ask them about the hazards of the job in front of them and what they would do if the alarm sounded, and check their names against the training records you just read.

When the records say one thing and the floor says another, believe the floor and write down both.

What the score tells you, and what it does not

The score is the share of checks that conform, with N/A left out. It is useful for comparing one site with another, or one audit with the last. It does not tell you how safe a site is: a site can score 92% with one major nonconformity that matters more than everything else put together. Majors are flagged as safety findings and float to the top of the report so they cannot be lost in a good percentage.

On the phone, speak while you walk, and the document writes itself: talk through what you are reading and seeing, attach photos of the records and the floor, and the checks and evidence fill in.

Close the loop

An audit is only as good as its follow-up. The last page lists each finding with its class, an action, an owner and a due date, and the next audit's first check asks whether the last audit's actions were closed on time. The auditor and the person audited both sign, so there is no argument later about what was agreed.

Common questions

What is the difference between an HSE audit and a safety inspection?

An inspection checks physical conditions at a point in time — guards, exits, ladders, housekeeping. An audit checks the management arrangements that are supposed to keep those conditions right — policies, risk assessments, training, contractor control, incident follow-up — and whether they are working. Most sites need both: frequent inspections and a periodic audit.

How often should an internal HSE audit be done?

Many organizations audit each site once or twice a year, more often for higher-risk work or a site that scored poorly last time. Whatever the interval, set it in advance and stick to it; the form ends with a next-audit date.

Who should carry out the audit?

Someone competent in health, safety and environmental management who does not run the site being audited. A manager from another site, a safety advisor or a trained internal auditor all work. Independence is what makes the findings credible.

Can I use this for an ISO 45001 or ISO 14001 internal audit?

It covers many of the same arrangements and grades findings in the familiar way, so it works well as a site-level internal audit. It is not mapped clause by clause to any standard, so for certification you may need to add the clauses your audit program requires.

What is the difference between a major and a minor nonconformity?

A minor nonconformity is a single lapse or a small gap in an arrangement that is otherwise working. A major nonconformity is an arrangement that is missing altogether, or a breakdown serious enough to leave people or the environment exposed — or a pile of related minors that together show the system is not working.