Health & Safety Audit & Site inspections
Compliance Audits Done Right.
Independent, structured audits that go beyond scoring - identifying real risk, driving genuine improvement, and giving your leadership team meaningful assurance.
What We Do
A health and safety audit should do more than produce a percentage score and a list of actions nobody follows up on. At Harlequins, we approach every audit as a genuine opportunity to understand how your organisation is actually managing risk - not just how it looks on paper.
Our audits and site inspections provide an independent, objective assessment of your current health and safety arrangements, examining everything from your documentation and management systems through to on-the-ground practice and leadership behaviours. We look at what's working, what isn't, and - crucially - why.
Under Regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, organisations are required to plan, implement, monitor, and review their health and safety arrangements. A robust audit process is central to meeting that duty and demonstrating it to regulators.
Why it matters
Poor or superficial auditing is one of the most common reasons organisations find themselves exposed - not because they haven't done audits, but because those audits haven't identified the right things.
High scores on paper can mask serious underlying risk. Tick-box inspections miss systemic failures. And without clear, prioritised findings, even well-intentioned organisations struggle to know where to focus their efforts.
The consequences of getting this wrong can include:
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Enforcement action or prohibition notices from the HSE or local authority
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Increased likelihood of workplace incidents and injuries
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Failure to meet the expectations of regulators such as the CQC
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Personal liability for directors and senior managers
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Insurance and reputational implications following an incident
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A well-conducted audit doesn't just identify problems - it protects your organisation and gives your leadership team the evidence they need to demonstrate due diligence.
Services we provide
Every audit we conduct is tailored to your organisation, sector, and risk profile. There is no standard template applied regardless of context. Depending on your needs, we offer:
Full Health & Safety Audit: A comprehensive review of your entire H&S management system - policies, procedures, risk assessments, training records, incident history, and on-site practices; benchmarked against current UK legislation and best practice.
Gap Analysis: A focused assessment identifying the distance between where your organisation currently sits and where it needs to be - ideal for businesses starting from scratch or following a significant change.
Focused/Thematic Audits: Targeted inspections covering a specific area of risk or compliance, including fire safety, food safety, COSHH, lone working, or contractor management - useful where a particular concern has been identified or a regulatory inspection is anticipated.
Site Inspection: A scheduled or unannounced physical inspection of your premises and operations, producing a clear findings report with prioritised actions and timescales.
All audit reports are written in plain language, with no unnecessary jargon, no ambiguity, and no findings left open to interpretation. Every report includes a prioritised action plan that tells you exactly what needs to happen, in what order, and why.
Our approach
We begin every audit with a conversation — understanding your business, your sector, any recent incidents or concerns, and what you're hoping to get from the process. This shapes the audit scope and ensures we focus our time where it matters most.
On site, we combine document review with direct observation and, where appropriate, conversations with staff at different levels of the organisation. What people actually do is often more revealing than what the paperwork says.
Our findings are presented clearly - distinguishing between critical issues requiring immediate action, significant gaps needing planned resolution, and areas of good practice worth recognising and building on. We don't believe in persecuting businesses for what isn't perfect. We believe in helping you build something better.
Following the audit, we're available to talk through the findings with your leadership team, support the development of an improvement plan, and track progress over time if needed.
Additional Support
Our audit work integrates naturally with the rest of what we offer, including:
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Retained Competent Person support for ongoing compliance assurance
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Risk assessment and documentation development following gap identification
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Staff training and development to address competency gaps identified during audit
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Fire risk assessments and fire safety compliance reviews
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CQC and HSE inspection preparation and support
