Site Safety Inspections: What Must Be Inspected, How Often and How to Do It Well

Inspections are the main way a site checks that its controls are working before someone gets hurt. Some are required by law at set intervals. Others, such as weekly site safety walks, are good practice and the backbone of the Check stage of Plan, Do, Check, Act.

Statutory inspections at a glance

Running a good site inspection

1. Plan it. Use a checklist, but do not just tick boxes. Look at the work actually happening.
2. Walk the whole site, including welfare, storage areas and the boundary.
3. Talk to people. Ask how the job is going and what gets in the way of doing it safely.
4. Look for root causes. A missing guard rail is a symptom. Why was it removed?
5. Record what you find, with photographs, and rate the risk of each issue.
6. Act immediately on serious risks. Stop the work if needed.
7. Agree actions, with owners and dates, and close them out.
8. Share the findings with the workforce, so people know what needs to change and why.

What a weekly site inspection should cover

• Access and housekeeping: walkways, stairs, storage, lighting
• Work at height: scaffolds, edge protection, openings, ladders, towers
• Excavations, supports and barriers
• Plant and vehicles: routes, marshals, pre-use checks
• Electrical: 110V tools, leads, distribution boards
• Hazardous substances: storage, COSHH assessments, PPE
• Fire: fire points, escape routes, hot works
• Welfare: clean, stocked and adequate
• Paperwork: RAMS, permits, inspection registers, inductions

Active and reactive monitoring

Inspections are active monitoring: they find problems before an accident. Accident investigation is reactive monitoring: it learns from things that have gone wrong. Good sites use both.

Training that helps

Inspecting and monitoring is a core skill on SMSTS and SSSTS. IOSH Managing Safely covers measuring performance for line managers.

Where this fits in SMSTS and SSSTS

Inspections, checks and monitoring, including why findings should be shared with the workforce, are tested on both papers. Our free SMSTS mock test and SSSTS mock test let you check your knowledge before the course or a refresher, and you can email yourself the results sheet at the end.

When you are ready, the five day SMSTS course is for site managers and the two day SSSTS course is for supervisors. If your certificate is due, the SMSTS refresher and SSSTS refresher keep it current.

Frequently asked questions

How often must a scaffold be inspected?

Before first use, at least every 7 days where someone could fall 2 metres or more, and after anything that could affect its safety.

How often must an excavation be inspected?

At the start of each shift, after any event likely to affect its stability and after any accidental fall of material.

Is a weekly site inspection a legal requirement?

Not as such, but the law requires employers to monitor health and safety, and regular site inspections are the most common way to do it.

Why share inspection findings with the workforce?

So people know what needs to change and why, which makes it far more likely that the changes stick.

Read the source

The Work at Height Regulations 2005, regulation 12; the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, regulations 22 to 24; the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998, regulation 9; the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, regulation 6; the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989; and HSE guidance HSG65. Facts checked on 6 October 2026.