Health & Safety Audit

Health and safety is one of the few risks where failure carries personal consequences for directors as well as corporate ones. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places broad duties on employers, and any organisation with five or more employees must have a written health and safety policy and recorded risk assessments. Yet in many organisations, safety documentation and day-to-day practice quietly drift apart — and nobody checks until an incident forces the question.

Our health and safety audits provide that check on your terms: an independent, structured review of your safety framework, testing not just whether policies exist but whether they work where the risk actually sits.

What the Audit Covers

We assess the full safety management cycle: policy frameworks and whether they are implemented in practice; regulatory compliance and statutory reporting obligations; risk assessment quality and whether mitigations identified on paper exist on the ground; training and competency frameworks, including whether the people carrying safety-critical responsibilities are equipped for them; incident reporting, investigation and lessons-learned processes; and the management of contractors and third parties, which is where responsibility most often blurs.

Paper Compliance vs Real Compliance

The most dangerous gap in safety management is the one between the manual and the floor. Our audit approach tests both: we review the documentation a regulator would ask for, then walk the operation to see whether practice matches it — whether risk assessments reflect the work actually being done, whether controls are used rather than bypassed, and whether staff know what the policy expects of them. Findings distinguish clearly between documentation gaps and genuine unsafe conditions, because they need very different responses.

Reporting for Boards, Not Just Safety Officers

Health and safety assurance ultimately belongs to the board: directors carry accountability for safety governance, and after a serious incident it is the board's oversight that is examined. Our reports are written for that audience — a clear view of your risk position, prioritised actions with owners, and the evidence trail that demonstrates the organisation took its duties seriously. For audit committees, findings slot directly into your wider assurance map alongside internal audit and risk reporting.

How Engagements Run

Audits are delivered by experienced professionals with deep knowledge of health and safety regulation and cross-sector experience — offices, sites, warehouses, schools, care and public-facing operations. Engagements are time-bound with budget certainty, mobilise quickly, and can be one-off audits, rolling programmes or reviews commissioned after an incident or near miss.

What You Get With Acumon

• Independent audit of policies, risk assessments and safety management systems
• Practice tested against paper: site walk-throughs, not just document review
• Regulatory compliance and statutory reporting obligations checked
• Training and competency frameworks assessed for safety-critical roles
• Incident reporting, investigation and lessons-learned processes reviewed
• Contractor and third-party safety management examined
• Board-ready reporting with prioritised actions and clear owners

Why Acumon for Health & Safety Audit?

• Deep expertise in health and safety regulations
• Cross-sector experience with flexible engagement models
• Board-focused reporting that feeds your wider assurance framework

Get a Fixed-Fee Quote

Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with a clear scope and a fixed price — no hourly-rate surprises. Call 020 8567 3451 or use the form and we'll be in touch.