Workplace Safety Inspections and Audits
An inspection identifies what is wrong in a workplace on a given day. An audit establishes whether the system intended to prevent it is functioning. Employers generally need both, and they are not interchangeable.
PHASCORP conducts scheduled and unannounced workplace inspections and independent audits of health and safety management systems, produces written findings with corrective actions prioritised by risk, and follows through to closure
rather than leaving a report behind.
Request an inspection or audit: (647) 564-6824
Independent inspection
We conduct inspections on a scheduled or unannounced basis, covering physical conditions, equipment, guarding, housekeeping, storage and racking, traffic and pedestrian separation, work at height, hazardous energy, hazardous materials and emergency provision, adjusted to the sector and the operation.
Findings are documented in writing, classified by severity, and accompanied by corrective actions identifying who is responsible and by when. We then verify closure, since an inspection whose findings are never closed is a record of a known and unremedied hazard.
Management system audit
An audit examines the system rather than the site. The scope typically covers the written health and safety policy and programme, joint health and safety committee minutes and inspection records, training records, hazard assessments, written safe work procedures, equipment inspection and maintenance logs, incident and investigation records, and a physical walkthrough to establish whether documented practice matches observed practice.
Employers commission an independent audit for a number of reasons: in advance of a customer or general contractor audit, ahead of certification, following an incident, on acquiring a facility with an unknown history, or as an annual due diligence measure.
Preparing for a Ministry inspection
An inspector may enter a workplace without notice during business hours, examine and remove records, take photographs, test equipment and interview workers privately. Orders may be issued requiring compliance within a stated period, or requiring that work stop where the inspector believes an immediate danger exists.
The documents most commonly requested are the written health and safety policy and programme, joint health and safety committee minutes and inspection records, training records, hazard assessments, written safe work procedures, and equipment maintenance and inspection logs. Records that cannot be produced at the time of the request are, for the purposes of the order, records that do not exist.
Our pre-inspection assessment is structured around what an inspector examines first. The objective is a programme that is MOL compliant in practice rather than on paper, which in most cases means closing the gap between documented procedure and observed practice rather than writing further documents.
Where an order has already been issued, the engagement is different and time bound. That work is set out on the Ministry of Labour Order Response page.
Cost
Quoted according to the size and number of sites, the scope of the audit, and whether the engagement is a single assessment or a recurring programme.
Request an inspection or audit:
(647) 564-6824 or info@phascorp.com
Yes. We conduct scheduled and unannounced inspections, produce written findings with corrective actions prioritised by risk, and verify closure of those actions.
An inspection identifies hazards and non-compliant conditions present in the workplace at the time it is conducted. An audit examines whether the management system intended to prevent those conditions is functioning, by reviewing documentation, records and practice together.
Typically the written policy and programme, joint health and safety committee minutes and inspection records, training records, hazard assessments, written safe work procedures, equipment inspection and maintenance logs, incident and investigation records, and a physical walkthrough.
Section 9 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires the committee to inspect the physical condition of the workplace, ordinarily at least once a month, or on an agreed schedule where inspecting the entire workplace monthly is not practicable.
The written health and safety policy and programme, committee minutes and inspection records, training records, hazard assessments, written safe work procedures, and equipment maintenance and inspection logs. Records that cannot be produced at the time are treated as absent.
Yes. Prequalification audits generally assess an organisation against the customer’s own scorecard rather than against the Act alone. Send us the audit tool or questionnaire you have been issued, and we will work backwards from it.
Yes, and where the committee is the appropriate body we prefer this. We provide inspection training, terms of reference, templates and guidance on the recommendation process.
Yes. Many clients engage us on a recurring basis, commonly quarterly or annually, with the audit scope rotating across sites or subject areas so that the whole system is examined across a cycle rather than the same ground being covered repeatedly.
Yes. For construction and project work we conduct site inspections on a scheduled or unannounced basis, and can place a safety officer on site for the duration of a project where continuous presence is required.
Yes. Many clients commission an independent audit before a customer audit, after an incident, on acquiring a facility, or as an annual due diligence measure, without any intention of pursuing COR 2020 or ISO 45001.