Health and Safety interview questions
H&S interviews — risk assessment, legislation, incident investigation, and getting a workforce to work safely rather than to comply on paper.
18 questions, and for 6 of them what a good answer has to cover. This is the bank Answers Ready practises you against — the same questions, marked on the same points.
introduction
Tell me about yourself.
What a good answer covers
- What they do now, the sector and size of workforce, why this role.
- Qualifications stated accurately — NEBOSH and IOSH are checked.
- Under two minutes, ending at the job.
risk assessment
Walk me through how you carry out a risk assessment.
What a good answer covers
- Identify hazards, decide who might be harmed and how, evaluate risks and decide on controls, record, review.
- Suitable and sufficient — proportionate to the risk, not the longest document possible.
- Talks to the people doing the work, because they know the workarounds.
- Reviewed when something changes, not annually by ritual.
What is the hierarchy of control?
What a good answer covers
- Eliminate, substitute, engineering controls, administrative controls, PPE — in that order.
- PPE is last and why: it protects one person, only when worn, and fails without warning.
- An example of choosing a higher control instead of reaching for PPE.
- This is the single most commonly fumbled point in these interviews.
How do you reduce manual handling injuries?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
legislation
What are the main duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act?
What a good answer covers
- Section 2: employer's duty to employees. Section 3: to others affected, including contractors and the public.
- Employee duties under section 7 and the section 8 duty not to interfere.
- So far as is reasonably practicable, and that it weighs risk against cost, time and trouble.
- Names the Act correctly: Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
What is reportable under RIDDOR?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
How do you manage a substance hazardous to health?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
investigation
How do you investigate an incident?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
Someone was injured doing something they had been told not to do. How do you handle that?
Senior. Marked against your own answer in the app.
safe systems
When would you use a permit to work?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
culture
A supervisor tells you the safe method is slowing production. What do you do?
Senior. Marked against your own answer in the app.
How would you improve safety culture somewhere it is poor?
Senior. Marked against your own answer in the app.
scenario
You walk onto a site and see someone working at height with no edge protection. What do you do?
What a good answer covers
- Stops the work immediately. Everything else comes after.
- Makes it safe, then establishes how it came to be happening.
- Speaks to the person without humiliating them, and to whoever planned the job.
- A candidate who reaches for the risk assessment before stopping the work has answered wrongly.
monitoring
What is the difference between an audit and an inspection?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
construction
What are the duty holders under CDM 2015?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
contractors
How do you control contractors on your site?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
emergency
What is in a fire risk assessment?
Mid-level. Marked against your own answer in the app.
certification
What qualifications do you hold?
What a good answer covers
- Accurate: NEBOSH General Certificate, Diploma, IOSH Managing Safely, NVQ, technical membership — whichever is true.
- Does not inflate. These are checked, often before the second interview.
- What they are working towards, if anything.
- Comfortable that experience and a certificate are different things.