29th March, 2023

When To Inspect An Excavation And The Legal Requirements

The law requires you to prevent danger to people from excavations. This includes inspecting excavations to make sure they are safe. But who should inspect your excavations, and when do they need to be inspected?

When To Inspect An Excavation And The Legal Requirements header image

People get harmed, seriously injured, and killed every year working in unsafe excavations. But it doesn't have to happen to you.

When excavation collapses happen, prosecutions usually follow. Why? Because an excavation collapse isn't usually a freak and unexpected event. It's usually because the excavation was unsafe. And that means the law has been broken.

Because by law, employers have health and safety responsibilities to keep their employees safe. And more specifically, the CDM regulations (which apply to all construction work) require excavations to be safe.

Excavations of any depth can be dangerous, and a competent person should assess what support or safe angle is required to prevent collapse. But supporting your excavations isn't the end of the matter. Because conditions can change over time.

Excavations also need to be inspected.

When should an excavation be inspected?

There are three key points when an excavation should be inspected:

You should inspect your excavations at the start of each shift. No person should be allowed to enter an excavation until it has been examined.

If something is wrong, it only takes a second for someone to be buried and crushed beneath the collapsing soil. Checking the excavation is safe before anyone enters it is essential.

If any events happen that might impact the stability of the excavation then you need to inspect it again, things like:

And if any material falls into the excavation, or is dislodged, evacuate workers and inspect again. You could be getting an early warning sign before a collapse.

How often should excavation inspections happen?

Excavations must be routinely inspected at the start of each shift. This needs to happen before work is carried out, and before anyone enters the excavation.

In practice, this usually means that excavation inspections happen once per working day (as a minimum).

But you may need additional inspections if any events happen that might impact the stability of the excavation (like flooding) or if there are any falls of materials in the excavation.

So excavations should happen at least once per shift, but sometimes more often.

calendar

Who should inspect an excavation?

the excavation and any work equipment and materials which may affect its safety have been inspected by a competent person

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 Excavations

Excavation must be inspected by a competent person, this should be someone who:

Usually, a person becomes competent through a mix of skills, experience, and training.

Examples of training courses available include those offered by EUSR (Category 3: Install, Inspect & Remove Timber Support Systems, Category 4: Install, Inspect & Remove Steel Support Systems, Category 5: Install, Inspect & Remove Proprietary Support Systems), and City and Guilds Level 2 Awards in Excavation Support Systems.

What should the excavation inspection check?

Your excavation safety inspection should check that the excavation is stable and:

And that any support system is:

checklist

In addition to checking the excavation you also need to inspect any work equipment or materials that may affect its safety. This will include conditions in and around the excavation, such as services, soil, risk of flooding, lighting and traffic routes.

the excavation and any work equipment and materials which may affect its safety have been inspected by a competent person

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 Excavations

What happens if the excavation fails the inspection?

Your excavation will only pass the inspection if the person who carried out the inspection is satisfied that it is safe and construction work can be safely carried out there.

If it's not safe, you won't pass the inspection and the inspector will need to report to you what the problems are. Until you fix the problems, you can't carry out any work in the excavation.

(5) Where the person carrying out an inspection informs the person on whose behalf the inspection is carried out of any matter about which they are not satisfied (under regulation 24(1)), construction work must not be carried out in the excavation until the matter has been satisfactorily remedied.

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 Excavations
pipes in an excavation

If your excavation fails the inspection, the inspector will need to inform you and then prepare a report within 24 hours detailing the reasons for failing the inspection and the action required.

provide the report, or a copy of it, to the person on whose behalf the inspection was carried out, within 24 hours of completing the inspection to which the report relates.

This report is a legal document, and (in addition to fixing the problems) you must:

If the HSE requires a copy of the report, you must make it available to them.


Need to carry out an excavation inspection? Use the Excavation Safety Inspection template to check your access, stability, conditions, vehicles, personnel and documentation.

share on twitter share on facebook share on linked in share by email

This article was written by Emma at HASpod. Emma has over 10 years experience in health and safety and BSc (Hons) Construction Management. She is NEBOSH qualified and Tech IOSH.

Need health and safety documents?

Search hundreds of health and safety documents ready to edit and download for your construction projects.

Find Documents

Recent posts like this...

Do Your Construction Welfare Facilities Pass The Suitability Test? image

Do Your Construction Welfare Facilities Pass The Suitability Test?

Construction workers need welfare facilities. These are things like toilets, sinks, washing facilities, places to get changed and places to eat. And to comply with the law, your welfare facilities need to be suitable.

Read Post
Who Is Responsible For Health And Safety On A Construction Site? image

Who Is Responsible For Health And Safety On A Construction Site?

The principal contractor has overall responsibility for managing health and safety on a construction site - but they're not the only one. In this blog post, we will look at when the principal contractor is responsible, and who else has health and safety responsibilities too.

Read Post
Safe Digging Practices And Avoiding Danger Near Underground Services image

Safe Digging Practices And Avoiding Danger Near Underground Services

Contact with underground services can be deadly, and expensive. Buried services are a major construction site hazard, particularly in excavation work. Following safe digging practices will help keep you and your team protected when working near underground services.

Read Post

Spend less time on paperwork.
Start with the free plan today.