Good Practices for Business Inspections: Guidelines for Reformers

Inspections are meant to make businesses safe for both the people and environments they impact. When inspections systems work, they detect potential hazards to human or environmental health and provide opportunities for corrective action. When inspections fail, however, due to inadequate inspector training or remuneration, inconsistent enforcement, or unclear regulations, the costs can be high.

Inspections reform is often a part of a larger basket of regulatory overhaul. A good inspections regime should maximize compliance with clear regulations, minimize uncertainty for businesses by operating transparently, fight corruption by reducing discretionary power of inspectors, and minimize costs through efficiency.

This toolkit lays out a series of benchmarks that identify inspection elements as “ideal”, “reasonable”, and “bad practice”, and provides guidelines for taking steps toward reform.

Download the toolkit (PDF, 412KB).