Find out where the business actually stands.
A scored assessment across health & safety, quality and environmental that separates legal exposure from the things the business could simply do better. 162 questions, 22 sections and three days on site produce a baseline the leadership team can actually make decisions from.
Book a scoping call →The point isn't to give you a long list of everything that could be better. It is to separate what exposes the business now from what would make the business stronger over time, then put the actions in the right order.
Because free audits aren't audits.
They're usually sales calls with a clipboard.
Someone walks the site for an hour, lists what's wrong and follows it with a proposal. The business gets a sales document, not a diagnosis, and the findings can easily become shaped by whatever the provider hopes to sell next.
Find enough problems to create the proposal.
A short site walk may be useful as an introduction, but it cannot provide the same depth as a structured diagnostic across 22 sections and 162 scored questions. If the assessment exists mainly to sell the next service, the commercial incentive and the diagnostic are sitting in the same place.
Diagnose the position before deciding what happens next.
Three days on site, pre-review of the available documentation, conversations with people doing the work and fixed scoring rules. The result has to stand on its own even if DBIM never completes another day of consultancy for the business.
The £2,100 fee pays for the assessment itself, not for an opportunity to sell the business something afterwards.
If an issue can be dealt with internally, the report can say exactly that. Every finding does not need to become a DBIM project or retainer.
The scored report and prioritised action plan are designed to give leadership a usable baseline regardless of who completes the actions.
Paying for the diagnostic means the business intends to do something with what it finds. Charging properly means DBIM can spend the time needed to tell the business what is genuinely there.
A proper diagnostic takes days, not an hour, and the result should be credible enough to discuss with leadership, insurers, customers or anyone carrying out due diligence. That level of work has a value of its own and should not need to be hidden inside the price of whatever comes afterwards.
Better we both know in week one than in month six. The Compliance Check establishes the position first. Only then does it make sense to decide what needs fixing, what the business can handle internally and whether any ongoing external support is actually justified.
One score can't tell you what kind of problem you have.
A business breaking a statutory duty needs a different response from a business that is legally compliant but could operate at a higher level. The QHSE Compliance Check deliberately separates those two questions.
What must already be true?
Is the business meeting its statutory duties?These questions test legal requirements across health and safety, environmental compliance and relevant product or quality obligations. A low score here is exposure, not simply an improvement opportunity.
How mature is the system?
Where could the business operate more effectively?These questions look beyond the legal minimum at the systems, behaviours and management practices that can make the organisation more consistent and resilient. A low score here is a roadmap, not automatically a breach.
“Are we exposed?” and “How good are we?” are not the same question. Keeping the scores separate means urgent legal issues can be addressed first, while maturity improvements can be properly scheduled over the following months and quarters rather than everything appearing equally urgent.
Your overall risk rating is driven by Legal Compliance alone. Strong best-practice performance cannot disguise a statutory compliance gap. That keeps the headline assessment focused on the risks that can expose the organisation now, while the separate maturity score shows where the business can become stronger next.
One check. Three disciplines.
The Compliance Check looks across the organisation rather than treating safety, quality and environment as three unrelated systems. Each discipline receives its own score, while the full assessment provides one combined view of the business.
Health & Safety
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01
Leadership and governance
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02
Risk management
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03
Fire safety
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04
Work equipment and machinery
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05
COSHH and occupational health
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06
Training and information
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07
Incident management
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08
First aid and emergency
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09
PPE and welfare
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10
Contractors and visitors
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11
Workplace transport
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12
Premises and building safety
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13
People risks and ergonomics
Quality
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01
Quality management and customer focus
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02
Product conformity and safety
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03
Process control and calibration
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04
Supplier and subcontract control
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05
Competence and product care
Environmental
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01
Environmental management and legal register
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02
Waste management
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03
Emissions, energy and resources
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04
Pollution prevention
Bold sections carry the heaviest assessment weightings. The weighting reflects the relative significance of the subject rather than simply giving every heading the same influence over the result.
Health & safety, quality and environmental performance are scored separately as well as combined. The discipline with the lowest Legal Compliance score becomes the priority discipline in the report. That gives leadership a clear starting point rather than assuming health & safety, quality or environment must automatically come first.
13 + 5 + 4 = 22 sections. Across those sections, 162 questions build the full assessment: 103 testing legal compliance and 59 testing maturity beyond the legal minimum.
One check · One baseline · One action planCompliance sits in the middle.
Every applicable question is scored against the same fixed 0-to-5 scale. That makes the assessment repeatable and keeps the resulting action plan tied to evidence rather than how serious something happened to feel on the day.
Required control or supporting evidence cannot be shown.
Significant weaknesses exist and control is largely dependent on reaction.
Some arrangements exist, but the evidence does not yet demonstrate consistent control.
The evidence demonstrates the minimum required level of compliance.
Controls are established, consistently applied and supported by proactive management.
The organisation demonstrates mature and well-integrated control beyond the legal minimum.
Compliance is deliberately the middle of the scale rather than the top. Meeting the legal minimum matters, but it should not be described as leading practice. Scores of 4 and 5 recognise stronger, more proactive arrangements without confusing maturity with statutory compliance.
The rule is applied consistently across the assessment. The action register is therefore created by the scoring outcome rather than by an assessor deciding afterwards which findings look worth including.
Significant exposure requiring priority action.
Important controls exist, but substantial gaps remain.
Core arrangements are established with further improvement needed.
Strong control with proactive management evident.
Consistently strong and well-developed arrangements.
Where a question genuinely does not apply, such as no marked product, no trade effluent or no relevant equipment, it is marked not applicable and removed from both the score achieved and the maximum available score. The reason for exclusion is recorded, so the result is auditable rather than convenient.
The score should tell you what to do next. A low result identifies exposure, the 0-to-2 rule builds the action plan, and the higher scores show where the organisation has moved beyond minimum compliance into stronger and more mature management.
Evidence in. Priorities out.
The work starts before the first site day and continues after the last. Documents establish the starting point, three days on site test what actually happens, then the scoring builds the action plan.
Discover
The document request goes out before the visit. What comes back is reviewed in advance so day one starts with questions rather than filing.
Diagnose
Health & safety, quality and environmental are assessed together. DBIM reviews records, walks the operation and talks with supervisors and operators as well as management.
Design
Findings are ordered by legal risk first, then by impact. Every score of 0, 1 or 2 becomes an action with a recommended fix, priority and suggested owner.
Deliver
The scored report and action plan are issued within five working days of the final site day, followed by an hour walking the leadership team through the result.
Documents, records and management arrangements.
Full walk of the operation and physical controls.
Conversations with the people responsible for and affected by the controls.
The scored report and prioritised action plan are delivered within five working days of the final site day, while the site evidence and conversations are still current.
The site visit is only one part of the assessment. Reviewing evidence before arrival means the three days can be spent understanding how the operation really works, while the fixed scoring and post-visit analysis turn what was found into a usable management plan.
Start with the evidence you already have.
The document request goes out 5 to 10 working days before the first site day. You send back what exists. DBIM reviews it before arriving so the site visit can focus on how the business actually operates rather than spending three days searching through folders.
This is the only document request for the assessment. Items are split between evidence that can be reviewed before arrival and evidence that is more useful to inspect with you on site.
These items are reviewed before day one so DBIM arrives with the evidence already understood and the initial questions identified.
These items remain on site or make more sense when reviewed alongside the operation, equipment, people or local records.
You send back what you have. A document that cannot be found can itself become part of the finding. “We're sure it exists somewhere” is exactly the kind of position that becomes difficult during an enforcement visit, customer due-diligence exercise or insurance claim.
Nothing on the document request is a test. The request exists so the three site days can be spent looking at the operation, testing controls and talking to people rather than wasting valuable assessment time hunting through folders.
One assessment. One fixed fee.
There are no separate health & safety, quality or environmental modules to choose between. The QHSE Compliance Check assesses all three disciplines in one three-day diagnostic for £2,100.
From evidence review to leadership walkthrough.
The fee covers the complete assessment process, not simply the time spent walking around the site. The output is the scored diagnosis and prioritised action plan.
Are we in trouble, and how do we get better? The Compliance Check answers that across health & safety, quality and environmental rather than giving leadership three disconnected views of the business.
Any additional travel is added to the quote before you agree to proceed.
The assessment stands on its own. The findings do not commit you to a DBIM retainer or project.
The £2,100 is the price of the diagnostic itself and carries no credit against future consultancy.
Health & safety, quality and environmental management often share the same underlying processes: document control, competence, corrective action, audits, training, supplier control and management oversight. Looking across all three can expose unnecessary duplication as well as compliance gaps. One non-conformance process may be able to serve the whole business rather than maintaining three different versions of the same control.
A free 30-minute call comes first. We confirm whether the Compliance Check fits the situation and price any additional travel before you commit. If the full check is more than the business needs, DBIM can say that before an invoice exists.
Book a scoping call →The questions businesses usually ask first.
The Compliance Check is deliberately broader and more structured than a conventional site audit. These are the main questions to resolve before deciding whether it is the right starting point.
01 What's the difference between a gap analysis and an audit?
An audit normally checks against a standard or set of requirements the organisation has already adopted and asks whether the business is conforming. The QHSE Compliance Check starts more broadly: where does the business stand against legal duties, and where does it sit against stronger practice? It does not assume that an ISO management system already exists.
02 How is this different from a free H&S audit?
The main differences are depth, scope and independence. The Compliance Check involves three days on site, 22 assessment sections and 162 scored questions across health & safety, quality and environmental. The scoring rules determine what reaches the action plan rather than the assessment being designed around whatever consultancy might be sold afterwards.
03 Do we need ISO certification for this to be useful?
No. The quality and environmental parts of the assessment consider relevant legal duties and good management practice rather than requiring the organisation to hold an ISO certificate. The check is therefore suitable for businesses with no ISO management system at all. If certification is planned later, the resulting baseline can also provide a useful starting point for that work.
04 What if a whole section doesn't apply to us?
It is marked not applicable and removed from both the score achieved and the maximum possible score, so it cannot penalise or inflate the result. This might apply, for example, where the business has no relevant marked product, trade effluent or particular category of equipment. The reason for the exclusion is recorded so it remains auditable.
05 Our QHSE manager left suddenly. Is this the right first move?
It can be a particularly useful starting point after an unplanned departure. Records and responsibilities may be spread across different systems, while the person taking over can spend months reconstructing the position. A scored independent baseline gives the incoming manager or leadership team a defined starting point and identifies urgent exposure early.
06 Can we just do health & safety?
The £2,100 QHSE Compliance Check covers all three disciplines in one three-day visit, so there is no health-and-safety-only version of this service. If health & safety is the only requirement, the Competent Person Advice Line and Active H&S retainer both use a one-day annual H&S Health Check instead. DBIM can confirm which route fits on the initial call.
07 How quickly can you start, and how quickly do we get the report?
Site dates are agreed when the work is confirmed. The document request is issued 5 to 10 working days before the first site day. The assessment then takes three days on site, with the scored report and action plan issued within five working days of the final site day. The leadership walkthrough follows the report.
The diagnostic establishes the baseline before larger decisions are made.
The scoring gives the board a structured view of exposure and maturity.
A new customer, leadership change or QHSE departure can make a fresh baseline valuable.
Start with a free 30-minute conversation.
We use the call to understand what prompted the assessment, confirm whether the full QHSE Compliance Check is appropriate and calculate any travel beyond the first 40 miles. If a smaller service would solve the problem, we'll tell you before the £2,100 assessment is booked.