7 health and safety consultancies in the UK, and how to tell which fits you

Decide on a short list of consultancies by delivery model. Citation and Avensure sell a retained package paid monthly with a 24/7 line, Arinite and SOCOTEC sell consultancy wrapped around software or testing, and a smaller firm sells you one named consultant who knows your sites.

How this list was put together

Every provider below appeared in the first page of UK search results for "health and safety consultants" or "health and safety consultants uk" on 15 September 2026, so it reflects who a buyer sees in the organic results. Each description comes from the provider's own website, read the same day and checked again on 16 October 2026.

Opus Safety is on the list, at number seven, and we wrote the list. That is a conflict and you should read it as one. We have placed ourselves last and described what each provider does well, so the page is useful even if you pick somebody else.

What we did not do. We did not test any of these services, survey their clients, or verify their client numbers. We have left out providers' client numbers, claims about their staff's qualifications and their performance claims, because we cannot check them.

1. Citation, for SMEs that want a helpline and a yearly visit

Citation sells a retained compliance package to smaller businesses: a 24/7 advice line, an annual site visit, documentation held in their Atlas platform, and cover they describe for the cost of defending safety prosecutions, within stated limits, if you have followed their advice.

Consider them if your risk profile is moderate, your main worry is having someone to ring, and an annual inspection is enough contact for your sites.

2. Avensure, for a fixed monthly fee and a named advisor

Avensure charges a fixed monthly fee and assigns a designated advisor. Their consultants survey the site, produce a colour-coded action plan and write the health and safety documentation and a staff handbook. Support is offered around the clock. Their focus is UK SMEs.

They display accreditation marks for the British Assessment Bureau, the British Safety Council, Investors in People, RoSPA membership and Cyber Essentials.

Consider them if budget predictability matters more than depth, and you want one advisor who learns your business.

3. Arinite, for consultancy delivered through software

Arinite pairs consultants with a compliance platform and sells it three ways: fully outsourced with their consultant appointed as your competent person, a supporting role alongside your own health and safety team, or software access on its own.

They hold ISO 45001:2018 certification, and their headquarters are in London.

Consider them if you already have an internal health and safety resource that needs tooling and a second opinion.

4. SOCOTEC, for testing and certification alongside advice

SOCOTEC is part of an international testing, inspection and certification group with bases in more than 25 countries. Their health and safety work sits next to building control, certification and laboratory services.

Named specialisms include DSEAR compliance, roof safety management, managing contractors and ISO 45001 gap analysis, across construction, manufacturing, energy and utilities among others.

Consider them if your requirement crosses into testing, certification or building control, so one supplier can cover the lot.

5. Rhino Safety, for an outsourced department with employed consultants

Rhino Safety positions itself as an outsourced health and safety department, and makes a point that all of their consultants are directly employed. Clients get a personal consultant plus a support team behind them.

Based in Sandbach in Cheshire, with a London office and one in Ras al Khaimah, they serve businesses of all sizes across sectors from construction and logistics to childcare and hospitality.

Consider them if continuity matters to you and you want to know that the person visiting your site is on their payroll.

6. British Safety Council, for an audit with a recognised standard behind it

The British Safety Council is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, founded in 1957. It is a membership body that also sells auditing and consultancy.

Its distinctive product is the five star audit, a structured assessment of a health and safety management system, which results in a star rating. Its services include asbestos management, legionella surveys and psychosocial risk.

Consider them if you need an independent star rating you can show a client, an insurer or a board.

7. Opus Safety, for sector depth and regulator experience

We are a retained health and safety, occupational health and HR consultancy. Many of our consultants are former health and safety regulators, so their advice comes from having been on the enforcement side of a visit. That is the difference we would ask you to weigh.

Our work concentrates in core sectors, among them builders merchants, warehousing and logistics, manufacturing and engineering, garden centres, hospitality, education, leisure and metal stockholding, and the health and safety services are listed in full. The Opus Safety Partnership is the retained model, with a named consultant and scheduled site visits, and individual services are available on their own.

Consider us if you operate in one of those sectors, or if you have had contact from the HSE or a local authority and want somebody who has issued notices as well as responded to them.

Look elsewhere if you are an office of six with no machinery, because you can meet your duties yourself. Or just use our compliance software, Opus Compliance Cloud, for jobs such as your DSE assessments.

How to choose between them

Four questions separate these providers more reliably than any ranking.

Question	What it tells you
Who visits the site, and how often?	An annual visit and a phone line is a different product from regular visits by a named consultant
Are the consultants employed or associates?	Continuity, and whether the person who wrote your assessment will be there next year
Does the fee include the documentation rebuild?	Year one costs far more when your assessments are five years old
Do they know your sector?	A yard, a nursery and an office fail inspections for different reasons

Whatever you choose, the duty stays with you. Appointing a competent person under regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 changes who does the work, not who is accountable for it. Those Regulations extend to England, Wales and Scotland; in Northern Ireland the equivalent is regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000.

Frequently asked questions

How much do health and safety consultants cost in the UK? It depends on four things: how many sites you have and how far apart, what documentation is already in place, your risk profile, and whether you buy a one-off piece of work or a retainer. A single assessment is priced per job, and a retainer is priced for the year. Expect to describe your estate before you get a number.

Do I legally need a health and safety consultant? No. In England, Wales and Scotland, under regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 you must appoint one or more competent persons to help you meet your duties, and that person can be you or an employee if they have sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to assist properly. We have written separately on what to do when you have no in-house expert. The regulation requires you to appoint from among your own employees where you have the competence.

What qualifications should a health and safety consultant have? The law names none. Chartered membership of IOSH, shown as CMIOSH, IIRSM membership and a NEBOSH diploma are the qualifications you will see quoted.

What is the difference between a consultancy and a helpline service? A helpline answers questions when you ring. A consultancy visits the site, sees what is happening and writes the assessment from what it finds. Several providers sell both in one package, so check the site-visit frequency before comparing prices.

Should I choose a national provider or a local one? Neither is better by default. National providers bring scale, software and round-the-clock cover. A smaller firm may give you one consultant who learns your sites. Ask each of them how often somebody will stand in your workplace.

Can a consultant take on my legal responsibility? No. The employer holds the duty. A consultant can carry out assessments, write your policy and advise you, and the accountability stays where it was.

Talk to us

If you want a view on which of these fits your business, tell us the size of your estate and what is already in place and we will say so, including when the answer is not us. Speak to an Opus consultant.