Health and safety inspections and enforcement
We are responsible for enforcing health and safety at the following types of premises across the district:
- offices (except government offices)
- shops
- hotels
- restaurants and cafes
- leisure premises
- nurseries and playgroups
- pubs and clubs
- sheltered accommodation and care homes
We enforce the health and safety legislation at these premises in a number of ways:
Project based inspections
Every year we set a couple of projects based on the current health and safety priorities set by the health and safety executive and any local intelligence we have gathered. These projects involve us targeting specific topics or industries and carrying out focused inspections to check compliance. We have been able to provide businesses with information and guidance on how to achieve compliance and in some instances enforcement action has taken place.
Our recent projects have involved:
- Gas Safety in catering premises
- Carbon monoxide risks with solid fuel appliances
- Legionella
- Gravity Slicers
- Event Safety
- Petting Farms
Accident investigations
We are notified of reportable accidents that have occurred at premises within the district where we are responsible for enforcing health and safety legislation. We will investigate these accidents to find out the cause and help implement suitable corrective actions, we can also take any suitable enforcement action where required to get compliance.
Complaints
We also investigate a number of complaints about health and safety concerns. Complaints allow us to investigate and visit premises that we may not have focused on and are useful in providing us with intelligence about issues around the district.
If you wish to make a complaint about a workplace, please click here to view our complaints pages.
Enforcement
We have a range of enforcement options available to us when enforcing health and safety legislation including
- Advice and guidance
- Written warnings
- Improvement notices
- Prohibition notices
- Simple Cautions
- Prosecution
For more information, please see our enforcement policy.
Reporting
Local Authorities (LAs) provide data annually to Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on their health and safety intervention, enforcement and prosecution activity. The data is captured on a form known as an ‘LAE1’ and is submitted by LAs to the HSE who publishes this data on their website. This allows LAs to benchmark and peer review their activity.
Contact us
If you have any questions or queries please contact us using our online query form.
Contact us - Food and Workplace Safety
01235 422403
(Text phone users add 18001 before dialing)
Vale of White Horse District Council
Food and Workplace Safety Team
Abbey House
Abbey Close
Abingdon
OX14 3JE
