Health and Safety Office

Preparing for Audit

To help you prepare for the future, it may be helpful for you to know the following:

  • Safety auditing will be managed by the Health and Safety Office.
  • Dates will be notified and agreed well in advance, and will take into account other reviews or safety-significant factors which may be ongoing within a department. Audit dates once agreed, cannot normally be cancelled or changed.
  • A yearly audit schedule will be available and the short-term programme will be published.
  • The audit team will be selected by the Health and Safety Office agreed with the department and will usually comprise no more than 3 persons external to the department.
  • Advance instructions will be sent to Heads of Departments, Departmental Safety Officers and Departmental Administrators advising on the preparation and documentation required.
  • The length of time the audit team will be in a particular department is dependent on its size and complexity and can be from 0.5 to 4 days.
  • The audit process will include interviews of individuals within each department.
  • An interview timetable will be organised by the Departmental Administrator and must include the Head of Department.
  • Reports will be agreed with the Head of Department before issue: non-confidential summaries will be published to the University Health and Safety Executive Committee, whilst full reports will be published to the department only.
  • As there are approximately 150 departments of varying size and complexity, and based on the Health and Safety Office undertaking at least one or two audits per month, the full cycle will take approximately 3 - 5 years.
  • The Departments that were selected for the early part of the timetable were those within which perceived risks are diverse and capable of causing major losses to the University (not just accident potential), or those where there are other reasons for early selection, such as attention from the Enforcement Authorities.
  • At least one follow up visit will be made approximately 3 - 6 months post-audit, the purpose of which being to ensure that an action plan has been produced and actions are occurring.