Veterinary Health and Safety Audit: Preparing for an HSE Inspection

What an HSE inspector looks for in a vet practice

When the Health and Safety Executive inspects a veterinary practice, they are checking whether the practice meets its duties as an employer — not whether it owns the right equipment. The questions are consistent: is there a written health and safety policy, are risks assessed, are control measures in place and working, are staff trained, and is there a system that keeps all of this current. A practice that can evidence those five things is in good shape; one that has the equipment but not the system is not.

This guide is a self-audit framework. Work through it before an inspector does, and the visit becomes a confirmation of internal control rather than a discovery of unknown gaps.

The core legal duties

Two pieces of legislation sit underneath everything an inspector checks.

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 sets the general duty. Section 2(1): every employer must "ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees". This is the umbrella obligation — everything else is how you discharge it.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 make risk assessment the central mechanism. Regulation 3 requires that "every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of— (a) the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and (b) the risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking". For a vet practice, "persons not in his employment" includes clients in the waiting room and contractors on site.

"Suitable and sufficient" is the phrase inspectors use most. It means the assessment has to actually address the hazards present — and a vet practice has hazards a generic template won't cover.

The self-audit: section by section

1. Health and safety policy

• Written policy in place (a legal requirement once you employ five or more people)
• Names who is responsible for what
• Signed and dated, reviewed within the last 12 months
• Staff know where it is and what it says

2. Risk assessments

This is where most findings are made. Check that you hold current risk assessments covering the vet-specific hazards:

• Animal handling and zoonoses
• Anaesthetic gases and chemical exposure (see COSHH)
• Radiation for practices taking X-rays
• Sharps and needlestick injuries
• Manual handling
• Lone working and out-of-hours
• Slips, trips, electrical, and fire

Each assessment should show the hazard, who's at risk, the controls in place, and a review date. A four-year-old assessment is presumed not "suitable and sufficient".

3. COSHH

• COSHH assessments for every hazardous substance — anaesthetic agents, disinfectants, parasiticides, lab reagents
• Safety data sheets accessible to staff
• Control measures (ventilation, PPE, scavenging) in place and maintained

4. Training and competence

• Training records evidencing that staff are trained for what they do
• Competence sign-off, not just attendance
• Refresher training tracked and current

5. Incident reporting (RIDDOR)

Practices must report certain incidents to the HSE under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). The reportable categories include deaths, specified injuries to workers, injuries causing over-seven-days' incapacitation, certain occupational diseases, and dangerous occurrences. In a vet practice this commonly arises with serious animal-handling injuries, needlestick incidents leading to a reportable infection, or a dangerous equipment failure.

Audit point: is there an accident book, are incidents recorded, and does someone know what triggers a RIDDOR report? The HSE RIDDOR guidance sets out exactly what is reportable — the practical risk is not knowing a report was required and missing the deadline.

6. Premises and equipment

• First aid provision adequate and stocked
• Fire risk assessment in place, extinguishers serviced, escape routes clear
• Electrical equipment maintained (PAT where appropriate)
• Equipment maintenance and calibration logged (autoclaves, anaesthesia machines, X-ray)

What good evidence looks like

Inspectors deal in evidence, not assertions. For each area above, "we do that" is weaker than a document with a date on it. The evidence base that turns a difficult inspection into a straightforward one:

• A current, signed H&S policy
• A complete set of dated risk assessments and COSHH assessments
• A training matrix showing who's competent in what
• An accident book and a documented incident-reporting process
• Maintenance and servicing logs for equipment
• A review schedule showing this is all kept current, not done once

The system that holds it together

Practices that pass inspections cleanly aren't necessarily safer on the day — they have a system that keeps the evidence current. The difference between a practice that scrambles at inspection and one that doesn't is rarely effort; it's organisation.

That system is your clinical governance framework. It owns the review cycle for each H&S stream, captures incidents and near-misses, tracks actions to closure, and pulls the year's findings into improvement priorities. With it, an HSE inspection confirms internal control. Without it, the inspection becomes the audit you never ran yourself.

A pre-inspection checklist

Two weeks before any planned assessment — or simply once a year — walk through:

1. Is the H&S policy current, signed, and known to staff?
2. Are all vet-specific risk assessments present and reviewed within 12 months?
3. Are COSHH assessments complete with accessible safety data sheets?
4. Do training records evidence competence for every role?
5. Is there an accident book and a clear RIDDOR-reporting process?
6. Are fire, first aid, and equipment maintenance up to date?
7. Is there a documented review cycle proving all of the above is kept current?

A "no" or "not sure" against any of these is a finding waiting to happen — and a fortnight's notice is enough to fix most of them.

How this fits the wider compliance picture

A health and safety audit overlaps with almost every other non-clinical compliance stream a practice runs — COSHH, radiation safety, risk assessments, training records, and SOPs. The same H&S evidence is also assessed within the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme, so the work you do to prepare for an HSE inspection does double duty for PSS assessment.

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This guide is general health and safety compliance information for UK veterinary practices, not legal advice. Health and safety duties are enforced by the Health and Safety Executive. For practice-specific advice, consult a competent health and safety adviser and your defence body.