HSE inspectors do not arrive at random, though it can feel that way. Visits to construction sites begin in one of four ways, and the four are worth separating because your influence over them differs enormously.
1. A RIDDOR report
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 require the responsible person to report certain events. On construction sites the ones that most often trigger contact are:
- Deaths and specified injuries: fractures other than to fingers, thumbs and toes; amputation; permanent loss or reduction of sight; crush injuries to the head or torso; serious burns; scalping requiring hospital treatment; loss of consciousness from head injury or asphyxia; and injuries from working in an enclosed space leading to hypothermia, heat illness or requiring resuscitation or 24-hour hospital admission.
- Over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker, reported within 15 days.
- Non-fatal injuries to members of the public where they are taken directly to hospital for treatment.
- Occupational diseases diagnosed in writing, including hand-arm vibration syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, occupational dermatitis, occupational asthma and tendonitis of the hand or forearm.
- Dangerous occurrences — the near-miss list — including collapse or overturning of lifting equipment, collapse of scaffolding over five metres, unintentional collapse of a structure or excavation, accidental release of a substance that could cause injury, electrical short circuit causing fire or explosion, and unintentional contact with overhead power lines.
The dangerous occurrences list matters because it means a scaffold collapse or an overhead line strike with nobody hurt is still reportable, and can still bring an inspector. Not reporting is itself an offence, and a late or missing report frames everything that follows.
HSE does not investigate every report. It applies published incident selection criteria weighing severity, whether the circumstances suggest a serious breach, whether there is a wider public interest, and the duty holder's history. Fatalities and specified injuries in high-risk activities — falls from height, excavation collapse, contact with plant — are the most likely to be investigated.
2. A concern raised by someone
Anyone can report a workplace safety concern to HSE, and the form is public. Operatives, subcontractors, neighbours, passers-by and members of the public all do. Reports can be made anonymously, and HSE will not disclose the source.
The concerns that generate the fastest response are the visible ones: unprotected edges on a scaffold, an unsupported trench, work over a public footpath with no protection, dust visible from the street, a machine operating next to pedestrians. A concern from a neighbouring property about dust or noise can bring an inspector who then looks at everything else while there.
Two practical consequences. First, the appearance of a site from outside the hoarding is a real enforcement variable. Second, a workforce with a functioning internal route to raise concerns — the consultation duty CDM 2015 places on the principal contractor — is much less likely to use the external one.
3. Proactive inspection
HSE runs planned construction inspection initiatives, historically focused on themes such as work at height, refurbishment work, and occupational health risks including dust. During these campaigns inspectors visit sites unannounced, in numbers, and small refurbishment projects are targeted precisely because they are where the fatality rate is highest relative to size.
Nothing you do influences whether a proactive visit happens. Everything you do influences what it finds.
4. Follow-up
Previous enforcement, an outstanding improvement notice, an incomplete undertaking, or a pattern of reports across a company's sites all generate return visits. Enforcement history is cumulative and public: HSE's enforcement database lists notices and prosecutions, and clients and insurers read it. The duties being enforced are the ones set out in CDM 2015 explained.
What an inspector asks for
Inspectors have powers under section 20 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to enter premises, examine and investigate, take measurements and photographs, require documents to be produced, and require people to answer questions. In practice the requests are predictable:
- The construction phase plan and the pre-construction information.
- The RAMS for the activity in question — and often for two or three other activities as a sample.
- Briefing records and toolbox talk sheets showing that the RAMS was communicated to the people doing the work.
- Training and competence records: CSCS, CPCS, IPAF, PASMA, CISRS, first aid.
- Statutory inspection records: scaffold inspections, LOLER thorough examinations, PUWER checks, excavation shift inspections.
- COSHH assessments and safety data sheets, plus face-fit test records for RPE.
- Accident book, near-miss records and previous RIDDOR reports.
- Welfare provision — checked by looking at it.
The comparison that matters is between the documents and the site. An inspector who reads a method statement describing on-tool extraction and then watches somebody dry-cutting blocks in a cloud of dust has found a more serious problem than an inspector who finds no document at all, because it establishes that the risk was known and the control was not implemented. The same logic drives what happens when you submit an inadequate RAMS.
What follows a visit
Outcomes range from verbal advice, through a notification of contravention in writing, to improvement and prohibition notices, to prosecution in serious cases. Where the inspector identifies a material breach and writes to you about it, Fee For Intervention applies and HSE recovers its costs at an hourly rate for the time spent, including the investigation and the correspondence.
Preparing without pretending
Preparation is not tidying up before a visit you cannot predict. It is making the documents true and keeping them where they can be produced: current RAMS on site, briefing records signed and filed, inspection records up to date, competence records accessible, and the method on paper matching the method in use.
A practical habit is keeping an exportable copy of your document reviews with the project file, so the reasoning behind a document is retrievable months later — downloading a report as a PDF takes a click, and a folder of them alongside the RAMS revisions is a straightforward answer to "show me how you assured this".
This article is general guidance on UK construction documentation practice. It is not legal advice, a compliance certification or a substitute for review by your own qualified health and safety personnel, who remain responsible for deciding whether any particular document is adequate. See our disclaimer.