- Safety Audit definitions
- Audit Procedure
- Types of Safety audits
What are Safety Audit and its types?
A systematic examination to determine whether activities and related results conformed to planned arrangements and weather these arrangements are implemented effectively and are suitable for achieving organization’s policy & objective- OHSAS
The structured process of collecting independent information on efficiency, effectiveness & total reliability of the health & safety management system and drawing up plan for corrective action- NEBOSH
In short, safety audit is the demonstration of management commitment to improve over all safety of the work place.
In other words, the safety audit is a process that identifies unsafe acts & unsafe conditions in the plants/ working premises and recommends safety improvement.
Safety auditing is a very effective tool with safety management for identifying weak spots and planning corrective actions.
Audit Procedure
1. Objective of the audit is determined (Pre audit preparation)
i. The scope of the audit
ii. The area of the audit
iii. The extent of the audit
iv. Who will be required
v. Information gathering
2. Forming the audit team
3. Collecting the relevant documents- Documents & Records
4. Informing audit schedule
5. Opening audit meeting
6. Actual audit (During Audit)
i. Documents- Health & Safety Policy, RA/JSA/ Safe System of Work/ Method Statement, MSDS, TPI, Accident Investigation, Enforcement action/ visit report, insurance companies, clients, etc.
ii. Records- Training, accident/ incident/ near miss, First aid, Inspection, Survey, Tour, Sampling,
Benchmarking, Health surveillance, Previous Audit, P & M Maintenance, Workers Complaints, Legal Register, Safety review meeting, Minutes of meeting,
iii. Interview- Manager & Workers
iv. Direct observation of Premises(Working Area), Plant (Machinery & Vehicles), People( behavior & activities), Procedure (Working method)
7. Closing audit meeting
8. Audit report submission
9. Action by the organization
Types of Safety audits
There are three types of safety audits-
1) Internal Audit
a. Walk through
b. Intermediate
c. Comprehensive
2) External Audit
It is the responsibility of the organization to establish and implement health & safety auditing.
There are circumstances when external authorities such as enforcement authorities, insurance companies, clients will carry out audits; and an organization may have to audit in order to achieve and maintain certain certification. (E.g. OSHAS 18001 certification)