On site
What is a site inspection?
A site inspection is a recorded walk of a site against a defined standard, identifying unsafe conditions and practices and raising them as actions with an owner and a date.
Use this diagram+
Free to use on your own site, in training material or in a handout, as long as the credit link stays on it. Paste this where you want the diagram to appear.
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<img src="https://buildoptix.co.uk/glossary/site-inspection/diagram.svg" alt="site inspection — diagram from BuildOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://buildoptix.co.uk/glossary/site-inspection">What is a site inspection?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://buildoptix.co.uk">BuildOptix</a>
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</figure>Its worth is in what happens after it. An inspection that lists fifteen findings and assigns none of them has documented a site rather than improved it, and repeat findings across successive inspections are the clearest signal that this is happening.
Some inspections are statutory and structured — scaffolds, excavations and certain equipment have their own regimes with their own intervals and record requirements. Those sit alongside the general inspection rather than inside it.
The most useful inspections are the ones carried out by someone who does not see the site every day, because familiarity is what stops people noticing the material stacked against the fire exit.
What goes wrong in practice
- Findings recorded with no owner, which reliably means nobody closes them.
- The same finding recurring for weeks with no escalation.
- Closed with a tick and no evidence, leaving nothing to show what was actually done.
- Statutory inspections folded into a general walk and so not recorded to their own requirements.