Health and safety inspectors are civil servants employed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), a branch of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). They investigate accidents, causes of ill-health and complaints. The work involves a wide range of industries and environments including: offices, factories, hospitals, food retailers, agriculture, construction, offshore oil and gas installations, railways and chemical plants.
The work may involve:

Hours are normally 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. The work is office based but two or three days a week are spent visiting workplaces.
Salaries range from £17,000 for a new recruit to £46,000 for those at the highest level.
Skills, qualities and interests needed include:

People start as trainee inspectors. There is fierce competition for jobs as there are only about 1,100 inspectors in the UK.
Entry is by degree or equivalent qualification. Applications are made to the Civil Service who look for an interest in legal matters, as well as intellectual and practical ability. Mature entrants are also welcomed.
There is a two-year training period, which includes practical training on the job and attending short in-house courses and modular training. Qualifications available include the NVQ/SVQ Level 4 in Health and Safety Legislation and a postgraduate diploma in Occupational Health and Safety.
Promotion can be to principal inspector and more senior management posts.

What is the work like?
Health and safety inspectors are civil servants employed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), a branch of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
They investigate accidents, causes of ill-health and complaints. They also examine ways to keep the work environment safe and prevent disease or injury. This may involve developing guidelines and programmes for people to follow. The work also involves following the law, regulations and policies relating to the workplace. This is done in a wide range of industries and environments including: offices, factories, hospitals, food retailers, agriculture, construction, offshore oil and gas installations, railways and chemical plants.
Typical work activities include:

Health and safety inspectors start on about £17,000 a year.

Hours and environment

Working hours are typically 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, 36 to 37 hours a week. Sometimes it may be necessary to work flexible hours in the evenings or weekends. The work is office based, but two or three days a week may be spent visiting workplaces. The work involves frequent travel and occasional absence from home. Depending on the workplace being visited, conditions may be dirty, smelly, stressful or dangerous. Protective clothing may be worn.
Career breaks, part-time work and job sharing are quite common.

Salary and other benefits

These figures are only a guide, as actual rates of pay may vary, depending on the employer and where people live.

Skills and personal qualities

Health and safety inspectors need:

Interests

It is useful to have an interest in:

Getting in

There are around 1,100 health and safety inspectors working in 22 offices across England, Wales and Scotland. There are research laboratories in Derbyshire and headquarters in London and Merseyside.
There is fierce competition for posts with approximately 4,000 applicants for 20 available posts as trainee inspectors each year. It is important that applicants learn as much as they can about the HSE. One way to do this would be to visit a local HSE office, if this is possible. Vacancies are advertised in the national and specialist press.

Entry for young people
To become a health and safety inspector the usual entry requirement is a degree or equivalent qualification. Applicants without a degree may be considered if they have two years’ relevant work experience and can demonstrate an equivalent level of achievement through work-based learning and/or other professional qualifications. A GCSE in maths is also needed.
Entry for a first degree requires at least five GCSEs/S grades (A-C/1-3) and three A levels/H grades or two A levels/three H grades and two AS levels, or equivalent qualifications.
Applications to the Civil Service as a health and safety inspector involve a number of stages. First, the application form is judged to defined criteria (which includes nationality criteria). Second, there is a half-day of tests. Third, there is a one-day assessment.
Applicants will need to show evidence of the following:

Entry for adults
Applications from mature entrants with the normal entry requirements are often welcomed because their maturity and life skills are considered valuable. Knowledge of a particular industry or sector may be useful. In some cases the minimum entry requirements may be lowered.

Training

Newly recruited health and safety inspectors follow a two-year training period, the first of which is probationary. The training programme involves both practical training on the job and attending short in-house courses.
In the first year, trainees gain experience of practical work by accompanying an experienced inspector on site visits. After gaining confidence they carry out site visits and write reports under the supervision of an experienced inspector. They also attend short, in-house courses.
Having successfully completed the first year, in the second year they attend modular training that leads to the award of a postgraduate diploma in Occupational Health and Safety, developed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in conjunction with a number of universities across the UK. Inspectors are also expected to achieve the NVQ/SVQ Level 4 in Health and Safety Legislation.
Trainees are appointed to one of the area offices throughout the UK, normally gaining experience in two of these. They may also gain experience with a national interest group responsible for a particular industry in the UK that may be involved in developing national standards and regulations. During this time a number of contacts will be made with a range of people and organisations including safety advisers, company managers, and trade unions, also internationally within the European Union (EU) and International Labour Organization (ILO).
Once qualified, inspectors attend frequent courses to continually update their knowledge and skills.

Getting on

New recruits join as trainee inspectors in the Field Operations Directorate (FOD) of the HSE.
Transfers are then possible to different posts within the HSE. Placements are also possible to other parts of the Civil Service and this may involve a change of location. Staying three to five years in each location is the norm before moving on.
After gaining around ten years’ experience and depending on an individual’s performance, there may be opportunities to be promoted to principal inspector.
Promotion to senior management level can be achieved after wide and substantial experience. Inspectors may transfer to other branches of the HSE such as the Health and Safety Commission (HSC), to undertake policy work for example.
There may also be opportunities to move into related areas, eg in consultancy work, lecturing or as a safety adviser in industry.

Further information

British Safety Council, 70 Chancellors Road, London W6 9RS. 020 8741 1231. Website: www.britishsafetycouncil.org
Civil Service Careers. Website: www.careers.civil-service.gov.uk
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR. 08459 335577. Website: www.defra.gov.uk
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Bootle Information Centre, Magdalen House, Trinity Road, Bootle, Merseyside, L20 3QZ. 0845 345 0055. Website: www.hse.gov.uk
Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), The Grange, Highfield Drive, Wigston, Leicestershire LE18 1NN. 0116 257 3101. Website: www.iosh.co.uk
International Labour Organization (ILO). Website: www.ilo.org
National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH), Dominus Way, Meridian Business Park, Leicester LE19 1QW. 0116 263 4700. Website: www.nebosh.org.uk
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), RoSPA House, Edgbaston Park, 353 Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7ST. 0870 777 2224 (calls will be charged at a national rate). Website: www.rospa.co.uk

Further reading

Safety and Health Practitioner (SHP) - CMP United Business Media, Monthly

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