A health inspector has the right to enter your work premises at any time. Usually, they will be coming to carry out a health and safety inspection. However they can also be called upon to investigate an accident or other health and safety related incident that may have happened. In the these instances, they will want to establish what caused the accident or incident, and advise on whether or not you need to take action to prevent a similar occurrence happening again. They might also look at if there has been a breach of health and safety law.
Health Inspector’s Rights
Whatever the purpose of their visit, health inspectors have the right to take certain actions.
This includes:-
- Carrying out examinations and investigations.
- Taking measurements, photographs or samples if necessary.
- They can take possession of an article or item and arrange for it to be dismantled or tested.
- Inspectors can seize and take away or make safe any article or substance that could cause serious personal injury.
- They can request information and take statements from people they think might be able to help them in an investigation and can inspect and copy documents related to their reason for being there.
An inspector may conclude that you are breaking Health and Safety Law or that there are serious health and safety risks. If this is the case they have the right to issue an informal warning either verbally or in writing. The health inspector can also issue an improvement notice or prohibition notice.
A prohibition notice can mean that certain items of equipment cannot be used until modifications have been made to them. In certain instances the inspector has the right to say they can never be used again, and must be replaced. It might mean that certain activities you have been conducting on the premises are also prohibited.
In serious cases of breaches of health and safety law, no warnings, whether formal or informal have to be made. The health inspector has the right to prosecute the company or individuals within it without issuing prior warning.
Appealing Against a Health Inspector’s Decision
If you’re served with an improvement or prohibition notice you will be told in writing about your right to appeal. This will be accompanied with the appropriate appeal form. Appeals must be made to an Employment Tribunal (or an Industrial Tribunal in Northern Ireland) within 14 days of the notice being issued.
You may want to appeal if:
- You disagree with the inspector’s opinion that you are breaking the law.
- Or you disagree that your activities give rise to a risk of serious injury.
Tribunal Hearings
If you appeal against an improvement notice, the notice will be suspended until after your appeal is heard. However, if you appeal against a prohibition notice, the notice stays in force until after the appeal is heard. The exception to this is if you apply to the tribunal to have it lifted pending the appeal. If the secretary of the tribunal agrees with your application, the notice will be lifted pending the court’s decision.
The tribunal hearing can either uphold the notice, vary the terms of the notice or quash the notice.
If the tribunal upholds or varies the terms of an improvement notice, you must ensure you comply with the law. You should make any improvements or modifications required within the time stipulated.
If the tribunal upholds a prohibition notice, you must not resume the prohibited activity without taking required remedial action first.
Businesses must comply with a notice or face a fine. In some cases, the owners or directors of the company could face a prison sentence for failure to put right serious breaches discovered by health inspectors. This is also the case if they contravene a prohibition notice for a serious offence.
Hi.our shop is change now, before we have counters in normal size and high, now they change it because they said we need have counters for wheelchair , so the till which must be use for all the time are to low they are 60cm from floor behind conters and only small box for till and printer left for staff little higher,so situation looks now very bad because if customers coming with lots stuff and leaving them on that low counter we have to pick up every small thing from that low counter it’s very hard pick up and put back every time for 8 hours every small bar or anything else.is any employee rights or is any chance that we can call inspection to check in what condition we r working now? because we r report that to our management but their excuse is that is counter for wheelchair , and they can’t change it but on that tills we r serving all customers not wheelchair one.please help
Hi, Yesterday a health and safety inspector shown in my business. everything was perfect, but incredibly the hot water, that was working good, stopped, and didn`t work at all for one hour or so. I am still not sure the reason of the fault, we think a bubble of air, fact is that the hot water returned while the inspector was there. She decided to reduce our rate 5 to a rate 3 because of this TEMPORANEALLY fault. Now, I am not sure if and what I can do, however, we always had rate 5 and all the previous inspector gave us 5. I am against this, any suggestion. I understand that the inspectors are regulated by the health and safety at work ACT 1974. Any expert that can help me? Kind regards
I have worked on reception for 13 years and now the boss has taken my chair away. I work 10 hour shifts, can he do this?
@Suz – The Workplace (Health and Safety) Regulations 1992 refer to standing. The law says that employers must supply suitable seats if workers are able to perform their duties, or a substantial part of them, sitting down. More in this article here