Multi-site health and safety audit providers in 2026: 7 compared

A multi-site audit programme should hold every site to one audit standard, score sites on a scale you can compare, keep every finding in one action tracker, re-audit on a cycle you set, and send each finding to the person who owns it. For an external, scored benchmark, look at the British Safety Council. For an audit built on a question set you agree and compare branch by branch, Metro Safety. For standardised site reports that roll up to regional managers, Lighthouse Risk Services. For a named consultant who audits merchant, warehouse and factory estates and tracks the actions with you as well as being able to compare multiple sites across the estate, Opus Safety.

What a multi-site audit programme has to deliver

The law sets the duty and leaves the method to you. Regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires every employer to make and give effect to arrangements, appropriate to the nature of its activities and the size of its undertaking, "for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures", and to record them where there are five or more employees. Those Regulations extend to England, Wales and Scotland. For sites in Northern Ireland, regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 uses the same words.

An audit programme is how a group shows that monitoring and review happen at every site. HSE's guidance on how to manage health and safety calls the cycle Plan, Do, Check, Act: check your control measures, act where they are failing, and let the review become your next plan. Managing for health and safety (HSG65) is the HSE guide that explains the approach. Across several sites, five things decide whether the programme works.

One audit standard at every site

Every site is audited against the same protocol: the same questions, the same evidence, the same guidance on what counts as a pass. Sites differ, so the protocol needs a core that applies everywhere plus modules for activities only some sites run, such as a yard with lift trucks. A finding should mean the same thing in every report, whoever wrote it.

Scores you can compare

Each site gets a grade for each element of the system, on a scale that stays fixed from one round to the next. That lets you rank sites, see whether a site has improved since the previous round, and tell a site problem from a group problem. When the same question fails at branch after branch, the fix sits in a group procedure.

One action tracker for the whole estate

Every finding becomes an action with an owner, a due date and a status, held in one place that head office and the site can both see. The report records what was found on the day. The tracker shows, months later, which actions are closed and which sites are overdue.

A re-audit cycle you set

How often a site comes round again should follow its risk and its last result, and the decision should sit with you. A depot with lift trucks and a poor score may need a return visit within months, while a low-risk office can wait. If you work to ISO 45001, clause 9.2 asks for internal audits at planned intervals, run to a programme that sets frequency, methods, responsibilities and reporting and reflects previous results. If a provider offers a fixed annual visit per site, ask how a poor result changes the date.

Findings that reach the people who own them

A site manager needs that site's actions in plain language, with the regulation behind each one. Whoever owns a group procedure needs every finding that traces back to it, from every site. The board needs a short summary of which sites are improving and what is overdue. ISO 45001 also asks for audit results to be reported to relevant managers, and relevant findings to workers and their representatives.

How this list was put together

We read each provider's own audit pages on 6 October 2026 and kept seven that describe auditing across several sites or a fixed method for comparing them. Each entry describes what the provider says it offers; we did not test the services. The order follows fit, with no ranking implied.

Opus Safety is on the list, and we wrote it. We have placed ourselves last and said where the others fit better. We have left out prices, client numbers, review scores, outcome claims and claims about staff qualifications, because a reader cannot check them.

1. British Safety Council, for an external, scored benchmark

The British Safety Council sells two relevant audits. Its Systems Review looks at how effectively a management system is being put into practice across multiple sites or within departments, and compares management practice between sites. Its Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit measures your occupational health and safety management system against the council's own standard and leads to a star rating.

Consider it if you want a grade from an organisation outside your supply chain to show a board, a major customer or an insurer, or a baseline across a sample of sites before a full programme.

Worth asking: which sites a systems review covers, and who helps close the gaps afterwards.

2. SOCOTEC, for audits graded against HSG65

SOCOTEC's audit service includes a strategic compliance audit for organisations still building their safety management system, an HSG65 audit that follows HSE's Plan, Do, Check, Act approach, and an ISO 45001 gap analysis. Findings are graded on four levels, from inadequate, for anything needing immediate action, up to effective practice that meets industry standards. A fixed scale makes one site's report comparable with the next.

Its wider health and safety service covers asbestos, fire safety, occupational hygiene, DSEAR and contractor management, and its sectors include retail, hospitality and manufacturing.

Consider it if the audits are likely to turn up specialist work, such as asbestos or occupational hygiene, and you want one supplier to pick it up.

Worth asking: how results from several sites are reported together.

3. Metro Safety, for a question set you agree and compare

Metro Safety builds the audit around your own systems. It agrees a question set with you that reflects your health and safety processes, its consultants use that set at each location, and you compare performance across sites. Metro pitches it to multi-site clients that run comparable systems and controls at each location.

Its SafetySMART platform manages a programme of compliance visits and their frequency, tracks findings as cases across a portfolio, and shows performance on a dashboard. The wider group also covers fire, water and asbestos. Metro is based in London and audits sites throughout the UK.

Consider it if your sites share a format, such as a chain of stores or a property portfolio, and comparability matters most.

Worth asking: who owns the question set, and how often it is revised.

4. Lighthouse Risk Services, for standardised reports that roll up

Lighthouse Risk Services produces standardised audit reports across multi-site operations. Each site gets its own findings and actions, and the compliance data can be presented to regional or national managers or to a board. Lighthouse builds the audit itinerary around the legislation and risks that apply to your business, and each report carries a prioritised action plan in red, amber and green with references to the relevant law.

Warehousing, retail, manufacture and engineering are among the sectors it names, and it can stay on after the audit as your competent person. It also runs an employment law practice, with offices in Leeds, Liverpool and Cardiff.

Consider it if you need a site view and a regional view from the same round of audits.

Worth asking: how the itinerary changes between sites that run different activities.

5. SML (Safety Management), for benchmark audits with support behind them

SML runs site audits that produce action plans, targeted audits on a team, process or theme, and benchmark audits that compare your performance with a similar business. It works with single-site and multi-site organisations, aiming for a consistent standard that allows for local differences in people, premises and operational risk. Its retail service describes setting clearer standards across store formats without overloading local managers.

Safety Management, known as SML, is an independent, family-run consultancy established in 1989 and based in Daventry. It works across manufacturing, logistics, construction, engineering and retail.

Consider it if you want the audit to be the first step into retained support in an operational sector.

Worth asking: what the benchmark audit compares you with.

6. Arinite, for office estates and audits abroad

Arinite audits offices, multi-site operations and international businesses. For a multi-site or international programme it writes formal terms of reference, and its software gives one dashboard showing audit status, findings and action plan progress for every location. Findings are colour-coded red, amber and green with the legislation for each, and audits run on site or virtually, by video walkthrough and document review.

In its own words, office environments are its core specialism. It is headquartered in London.

Consider it if most of your estate is offices, or your UK sites sit alongside sites overseas.

Worth asking: which sites get a physical visit and which a virtual one, because a yard or a production floor is harder to judge on camera.

7. Opus Safety, for merchant, warehouse and manufacturing estates

This is us. Our health and safety gap analysis and audits are built on HSE's HSG65 framework. Your consultant reviews policies, risk assessments, safe systems of work and training records against current law, then inspects the site to check that what is written down happens on the floor. You get a prioritised action plan with every gap ranked by severity, a named owner and a timeline for each, compliance scoring, the legislation behind each finding, and an executive summary for the board.

The actions then live in Compliance Cloud, our compliance platform, where tasks are assigned automatically from audits and inspections, your team and your consultant see the same list, and you can benchmark sites on time to assign and time to resolve. On the Opus Safety Partnership, the same named consultant visits your sites, typically two to four times a year as set in your contract, and carries out the audits for you. Your audit schedule can be changed based on the outcome of the last visit, and we can compare your audits across multiple sites, providing a summary report for the board.

Our consultants include former health and safety inspectors. Our sectors include warehousing and logistics, manufacturing and engineering, childcare, garden centres, offices and builders merchants, where we are a Builders Merchants Federation (BMF) Preferred Supplier.

Look elsewhere if you want an externally awarded star rating, or if most of your sites are overseas.

How to choose between them

Put the same five questions to every provider on your shortlist.

Ask	A good answer
Will every site be audited against the same protocol?	Yes, a core for all sites plus modules for activities only some run
How is each site scored, and will the scale stay the same?	A grade per element on a fixed scale, so each result sits next to the one before
Where do the actions live after the report?	In one tracker you and each site can see, with an owner and a date on every action
Who decides when a site is re-audited?	You do, from the site's risk and its last result
Who receives which findings?	Site actions to the site manager, group issues to the procedure owner, a summary to the board

Check the people as well as the firm. HSE's guidance on ISO 45001 says any auditor you use should have evidence of competence to a recognised standard, such as ISO 19011, and points to the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register to find a consultant with experience of your work. It also says your organisation remains legally responsible for the day-to-day control of risk.

Frequently asked questions

What should a multi-site health and safety audit include? A review of documents against current law, a physical inspection of each site, a grade for each element of the management system, and an action plan with owners and dates. For a group, add a roll-up showing every site side by side.

Is a health and safety audit a legal requirement? The legal duty is to monitor and review, and an audit is one way to show you meet it. Regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which extend to England, Wales and Scotland, requires arrangements for monitoring and review, and the Regulations do not use the word audit. Regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 sets the same duty in Northern Ireland.

How often should each site be audited? The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 set no interval. Base it on each site's risk and its last result, so a high-risk site with a poor score comes round sooner.

What are the three main types of safety audit? The providers on this list sell three broad kinds: a compliance audit against current law, a management system audit against a framework such as HSG65 or ISO 45001, and a workplace inspection of physical conditions on the day.

Can we audit our own sites? Yes. ISO 45001 asks for internal audits, with auditors chosen to keep the audit objective and impartial. In a group, one way to do that is for managers to audit sites other than their own. An external audit can then check that they score consistently.

How much does a multi-site health and safety audit cost? It depends on how many sites you have and how far apart they are, what each site does, the scope, and the group reporting you need. Ask each provider to price the same protocol for the same sites.

Talk to us

If you run merchants, warehouses or factories across several sites, tell us how many you have and what is in place, and we will say how we would run the first round. Speak to an Opus consultant.