Audit vs Inspection: What's the Difference in Health and Safety?

### Two Different Tools, Two Different Purposes A **health and safety audit** is a structured, systematic review of your *management system* — the policies, procedures, responsibilities and records that govern how risk is managed. It asks: "Is the system designed correctly and is it working?" A **workplace inspection** is a physical walk-through of a site to identify *conditions* — hazards, defects, housekeeping issues and immediate risks. It asks: "Is this workplace safe right now?" ### Why You Need Both An audit can reveal that your policy is excellent on paper but never implemented on site. An inspection can reveal a leaking valve that no policy will fix. Together they provide a complete picture of compliance and real risk. ### LRMS Approach We conduct both. Audits use statuses like **Conforming**, **Improvement Opportunity**, **Action Required** and **High Priority** — never a simplistic pass/fail unless the method genuinely operates that way.