(in German)

According to the German Occupational Health and Safety Act, employers are obliged to implement measures to ensure the health and safety of their employees. These measures are monitored by both government regulators and accident insurance organisations. The purpose of this study was to analyse the impact of occupational health and safety inspections by both government agencies and accident insurance organisations.

A scoping review was conducted to present the current state of research on the impact of OSH inspectorate interventions with a focus on inspections. The main research question was: "What is the effect of OSH inspectorate interventions on occupational safety and health in companies?" The methodological approach was based on a systematic review of the effect of occupational safety and health interventions (Andersen et al., 2019).

A total of 37 publications from Europe and North America on the effectiveness of inspections on occupational safety and health were included. The results of the individual studies generally show an association between the effectiveness of workplace inspections and work-related injuries. The majority of studies also found a positive correlation between inspections and workplace compliance and implementation. Both programmed and complaint-based inspections improve occupational health and safety.

Our results strengthen the evidence of previously published systematic reviews on the effectiveness of inspections on the incidence of work-related injuries. Inspections are therefore a very useful tool for promoting and improving occupational health and safety. However, the results of the study also show that an effective OSH policy should not only be linked to the conduct of OSH inspections alone. In addition to company inspections, advisory visits by the labour inspectorate, orders and high penalties can be useful to increase effectiveness.

Please download the complete report "Scoping review on the effect of occupational health and safety (OSH) interventions with a focus on inspections" (in German only).