Health and Safety Audits for Commercial Premises
Lanahan Risk Management Services ensure your commercial premises are completely safe, and legally compliant with all relevant legislation.
We’re experts in the field of health and safety, and we can advise you as to what changes or amendments need to be made to your health and safety plan to provide you peace of mind that you’re fully compliant.
What is a Health and Safety Audit for commercial premises?
A health and safety audit for commercial premises involves a methodical review of your policies and practices regarding health and safety. We focus on how to prevent work related accidents in commercial properties through identifying and outlining safety hazards.
We aim to provide our commercial clients with actionable advice so that you can maintain legal compliance and maximise safety for yourself, employees and customers.
Are Health and Safety Audits in commercial premises a legal requirement?
Specifically, it is not a legal requirement to conduct a health and safety audit in commercial premises, but you are legally required to have some sort of health and safety system in place. So, whilst getting an audit isn’t legally necessary, the repercussions of not doing so could land you in legal and financial trouble.
The Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) highlights the responsibility of the employer to ensure the safety of employees in the workplace. This is relevant to all industries/sectors, including commercial, and a health and safety audit is the easiest way to comply with this responsibility.
Lanahan Risk Management Services also offer a ‘health and safety competent person’ service, through which we would act as your legally appointed competent person, supporting and maintaining health and safety practices.
The Health and Safety Audit process for commercial premises
Our health and safety audit process for commercial premises includes:
- 1A focus on your management systems and internal processes. We’ll notice and raise safety hazards, before outlining the improvements you need to make to lessen the risk of them occurring.
- 2A detailed report containing recommendations for improvements moving forward. These recommendations are related to improving safety, and raising important issues which may need immediate concern on your commercial premises.
Health and safety risks in commercial premises
Whilst every workplace has common risks to health and safety, commercial premises (depending on the industry) also see some unique potential issues:
Commercial property compliance legislation
Regarding commercial properties, you need an understanding of a couple of pieces of legislation in order to ensure legal compliance. The Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) outlines responsibilities as an employer to maintain health and safety in a commercial workplace, by defining general duties outlining a duty of care to your employees.
Another important piece of legislation to be aware of is the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999). This legislation states that employers need to (either themselves or through a third party) carry out risk assessments, develop safety policies and provide training to employees to teach safety practices.
How often should commercial premises have a Health and Safety Audit?
We’d recommend that commercial premises conduct a health and safety audit once a year as a bare minimum. This allows for basic updates to your health and safety policy, and ensures a reasonable level of safety.
You should also conduct a new health and safety audit every time your premises undergo significant structural changes, such as expansions or renovations.
To be sure that you’re legally compliant with safety policies, get in touch with Lanahan Risk Management for a comprehensive external audit.
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