TL;DR: A good health and safety consultant should be chartered (look for CMIOSH after their name) and ideally listed on the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OSHCR), which is governed by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Under Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, most UK employers are legally required to appoint a “competent person” to assist with health and safety, and an internal appointee should always be considered before you look outside. Before you hire anyone, ask for proof of qualifications and insurance, check they have experience in your sector, and get clear on whether you need a one-off project, a retained advisor, or full accreditation support. Our health and safety advisor service is delivered by a Chartered Member of IOSH and covers exactly this, from a first gap analysis through to ongoing retained advice.
If you have searched for “health and safety consultant near me” or asked a colleague who they use, you already know the problem. There are hundreds of people in the UK offering health and safety advice, the quality varies enormously, and it is genuinely hard to tell a properly qualified consultant from someone who did a two-day course and printed some business cards. This guide sets out exactly what to check, the questions worth asking before you commit, and the red flags that should make you walk away.
What Does a Health and Safety Consultant Actually Do?
A health and safety consultant helps a business identify its legal duties, assess and control risk, and put policies, procedures and training in place to meet them. In practice this usually means a mix of the following.
- Carrying out a gap analysis against current legislation and, where relevant, ISO 45001
- Writing or reviewing your health and safety policy and risk assessments
- Supporting SSIP accreditations such as CHAS, SafeContractor, Constructionline and Achilles
- Delivering or arranging training, from inductions to specific risk topics like fire or manual handling
- Acting as your ongoing “competent person” under Regulation 7, either alongside or instead of an internal appointee
- Carrying out site audits and inspections to check that what is written down is actually happening on site
Some consultants work project by project. Others work as a retained advisor, meaning they are on call throughout the year rather than brought in once and never seen again. Which one suits you depends largely on your size, your risk profile and whether you have any internal health and safety knowledge already.
Do You Legally Need a Health and Safety Consultant?
Not necessarily a consultant specifically, but you almost certainly need a “competent person.” Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires every employer to appoint one or more competent persons to help meet their health and safety duties. A person is competent if they have “sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities” to do the job properly, and the level of support has to be proportionate to your size and the risks your business carries.
Two points in the regulation catch businesses out.
First, if someone inside your business is capable of doing this, the law expects you to appoint them ahead of bringing in an external consultant. An external advisor can still support that person, but cannot simply replace an available, competent internal appointee.
Second, “proportionate” cuts both ways. A five-person office and a fifty-person warehouse do not need the same level of support, and paying for more than your risk profile justifies is as much of a mistake as paying for too little.
If nobody in your business currently holds relevant training or experience, which is the position most small and medium businesses are in, an external consultant is the practical way to meet this duty.
Who Enforces This, and What Happens If You Get It Wrong?
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) enforces the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, alongside local authorities for lower-risk premises. Getting competent advice wrong, or not having it at all, becomes most visible after an incident, when an inspector or investigator asks who your competent person was and what they actually did. “We meant to sort it out” is not a defence that holds up.
What Should You Look For in a Health and Safety Consultant?
Once you have decided you need external support, the difficult part is telling a genuinely qualified consultant from someone who sounds confident on the phone. Four things are worth checking before anything else.
Chartered status. Look for CMIOSH after a consultant’s name, which stands for Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. Chartered status is IOSH’s highest professional grade and is only awarded to members who can demonstrate significant experience and competence, not just a qualification certificate.
OSHCR registration. The Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register lists chartered health and safety consultants who have met OSHCR’s eligibility criteria, and is governed by IOSH. Checking a consultant against the register at oshcr.org takes two minutes and is one of the fastest ways to separate genuine specialists from generalists.
Relevant sector experience. Construction, manufacturing, care and office-based businesses carry very different risks. A consultant who has worked extensively in your sector will spot issues faster and write policies that reflect how your business actually operates, not a generic template.
Professional indemnity and public liability insurance. Ask to see current cover. A consultant giving advice on which your business relies should be insured against getting that advice wrong.
What Do CMIOSH and OSHCR Actually Mean in Practice?
CMIOSH tells you a consultant has been independently assessed by IOSH, the UK’s chartered body for health and safety professionals, and judged competent to practise at a senior level. OSHCR registration tells you they have gone further and put their credentials on public record specifically so that businesses like yours can verify them. Neither is a legal requirement to give health and safety advice in the UK, which is exactly why checking for them matters: the bar to call yourself a “health and safety consultant” is low, and these two signals are the clearest way to tell who has actually cleared it.
Retained Advisor, One-Off Consultant or National Firm: Which Do You Need?
Health and safety support broadly comes in three shapes. The right one depends on your size, your risk level and how much ongoing support you expect to need.
| Retained advisor | One-off / project consultant | Large national firm | |
| Best for | Ongoing “competent person” duty, evolving risk, regular queries | A single defined task, such as a risk assessment or accreditation push | Multi-site or high-risk organisations needing broad specialist coverage |
| Typical cost pattern | Fixed monthly or annual fee | One-off project fee | Higher day rates, often with account management overhead |
| Relationship | Ongoing, knows your business and sites | Short-term, limited ongoing knowledge | Varies by consultant assigned, can change between visits |
| Response time for urgent issues | Usually fast, you are an existing client | Often slower, no existing relationship | Depends on account structure |
| Local and sector knowledge | Builds over time | Limited to the brief | Broad but not always locally specific |
Most small and medium UK businesses are best served by a retained advisor. It satisfies the Regulation 7 duty on an ongoing basis, costs less than most businesses expect, and means the person who knows your sites is the same person you call when something goes wrong. A one-off consultant makes sense if you have a single, well-defined piece of work, such as preparing for a specific accreditation. A large national firm tends to suit multi-site or higher-risk organisations that need breadth across several specialisms at once.
Red Flags to Watch For When Hiring a Health and Safety Consultant
- No chartered status or professional body membership at all
- Cannot name the specific regulations relevant to your industry
- Offers a generic, templated policy with no sign of a site visit or gap analysis
- Reluctant to provide references from businesses similar to yours
- Cannot produce proof of insurance when asked
- Pushes an accreditation or certification you do not actually need for your clients or contracts
- Promises a certificate or “pass” before any assessment has actually taken place
Any one of these on its own is worth a follow-up question. More than one is a reason to keep looking.
Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Health and Safety Consultant
- Are you chartered, and are you listed on OSHCR?
- What experience do you have in my specific industry?
- Will you visit our site, or is this a remote, template-based service?
- Is this a one-off engagement or ongoing retained support, and what does that cover month to month?
- Can you support us with a specific accreditation, such as CHAS or SafeContractor, if we need it later?
- What happens if we have an incident or an HSE visit? Are you available, and how quickly?
- Can you provide references from businesses of a similar size or sector to ours?
A consultant who answers these clearly and specifically, rather than in vague reassurances, is usually the one worth hiring.
How Much Does a Health and Safety Consultant Cost?
Costs vary with business size, sector risk and whether you need a one-off project or retained support, and a like-for-like quote from two or three consultants is the only reliable way to compare. As a general pattern, retained advisor arrangements are priced as a manageable monthly or annual fee scaled to your headcount and risk profile, while one-off project work, such as a single risk assessment or policy review, is priced per piece of work. If a quote arrives with no site visit, no scoping conversation and a fixed price regardless of your business size, that is worth questioning rather than accepting at face value.
Get Chartered, OSHCR-Registered Advice
Choosing a health and safety consultant comes down to three checks: are they chartered, can you verify them independently, and do they understand your sector well enough to give advice you can actually use. HSEQ Support’s health and safety advisory service is delivered by a Chartered Member of IOSH and covers gap analysis, retained advisor support and site-specific risk assessments for businesses across Kent and the wider South East. If you are also working toward a specific accreditation alongside general health and safety support. And if you are specifically comparing local options, our guide to health and safety consultants in Kent looks at the local picture in more depth.
Get in touch with HSEQ Support for an initial discussion and gap analysis, and find out what a chartered, OSHCR-registered advisor can do for your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I legally need a health and safety consultant?
Not by name, but under Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 you do need a “competent person” to assist with your health and safety duties. If nobody inside your business has the training or experience to fill that role, an external consultant is the practical way to meet the legal requirement.
What is the difference between CMIOSH and OSHCR?
CMIOSH is a professional grade awarded by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) to members who demonstrate significant competence and experience. OSHCR is a public register of chartered consultants, governed by IOSH, that lets businesses verify a consultant’s credentials directly. Look for both.
How do I check if a health and safety consultant is genuinely qualified?
Ask for their professional body membership and grade (CMIOSH is the strongest signal), search for them on the OSHCR register at oshcr.org, and ask to see proof of professional indemnity and public liability insurance. A consultant with nothing to show on any of these three points should give you pause.
Should I use a retained advisor or a one-off consultant?
If you need ongoing competent-person support, which most businesses do, a retained advisor is usually the better fit and is often more cost-effective over a year than repeated one-off engagements. A one-off consultant makes more sense for a single, clearly scoped task such as preparing for one accreditation.
How much does a health and safety consultant cost in the UK?
It depends on your business size, sector risk and whether you need retained support or a single project. Retained advisor arrangements are typically priced as a monthly or annual fee scaled to headcount, while one-off work is quoted per project. Get quotes from two or three consultants against the same brief to compare fairly.
What questions should I ask before hiring a health and safety consultant?
At minimum, ask about their chartered status and OSHCR listing, their experience in your sector, whether they visit site or work remotely, whether the engagement is one-off or retained, and how they support you if you have an incident or an HSE visit.