Inspection report
What is an inspection report: inspection report explained
An inspection report is the issued document stating what was inspected, when, by whom, against which criteria and what was found, written so that someone who was not present can rely on it later.
What must an inspection report contain?
There is an internationally agreed floor for this. ISO/IEC 17020:2012, the standard for bodies performing inspection, requires that any inspection report or certificate includes all of the following: identification of the issuing body; unique identification and date of issue; the date or dates of inspection; identification of the items inspected; signature or other indication of approval by authorised personnel; a statement of conformity where applicable; and the inspection results. ISO/IEC 17020 was revised in 2026, so check which edition an accredited body is assessed against before quoting a clause number.
Read that list closely and it is really seven answers to seven questions a reader will have: who says so, which document is this, when did the work happen, what was looked at, who stands behind it, does it pass, and what did you actually find. Most weak reports fail on the fourth and the seventh. They name a vehicle or a site loosely, and they record a verdict without the observations underneath it.
Inspection report versus inspection record
These are not the same artefact and the standard treats them separately. The same clause set requires the inspection body to maintain a record system that demonstrates the inspection procedures were followed, and separately requires that the work is covered by a retrievable report or certificate. It also requires the report to be internally traceable to the inspector who performed the inspection.
In plain terms: the record is everything the organisation holds (the photographs, the readings, the session history, the audit trail), and the report is the statement issued from it. The report is what a customer, an insurer or a regulator reads. The record is what you produce when they ask how the report was arrived at.
Inspection report explained: the report of thorough examination
A worked example makes the content list concrete. Under the UK Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998, Schedule 1 sets out what a report of thorough examination must state: the employer's name and address, the premises where the examination took place, identifying particulars of the equipment and its date of manufacture, the date of the last thorough examination, the safe working load, whether the examination was before first use or an in-service examination, any defect that is or could become a danger, the timescale for putting right a defect that is not yet dangerous, the date by which the next examination is due, and the name, address and qualifications of the person making the report along with whoever authenticates it.
Notice how much of that is not the finding. Roughly two thirds of a legally compliant report is identification, authorship and dates. The industry habit of treating those fields as admin is exactly backwards: they are the part that makes the finding usable eight months later.
How long must an inspection report be kept?
Retention is set by the obligation the report serves, not by IT policy. The HSE guidance for lifting equipment gives four different answers in one table (HSE, INDG422). A thorough examination before first use is kept until the employer stops using the equipment, or two years for lifting accessories. An examination that depends on installation conditions is kept until the equipment is no longer in use where it was installed. An in-service thorough examination is kept until the next report is made or two years, whichever is later. In-service inspections and tests are kept until the next report is made.
The same guidance is explicit that records need not be held in hard copy, provided a written copy can be produced when required and the records are protected from unauthorised alteration. That is the standing requirement most digital systems meet by accident and fail on purpose, because an editable shared drive satisfies neither half. Retention windows also interact with data retention duties in the other direction, since personal data in an inspection file cannot be kept indefinitely just because it is convenient.
How do you correct an inspection report?
Forward only. ISO/IEC 17020 requires corrections or additions made after issue to be recorded the same way the original was, and requires an amended report to identify the report it replaces. Silently editing an issued report destroys the thing that made it worth issuing.
In practice that means a version, a reason, a date and a name on every amendment, and the superseded version still retrievable. If your system cannot show what the report said before the correction, you cannot answer the only question anyone will ask about the correction.
What an inspection report is confused with
- A job card or work order. Those authorise and track work. An inspection report states a condition and does not authorise anything.
- An estimate. Pricing the remedy is a commercial document. Mixing it into the report invites the argument that the finding was driven by the sale.
- An engineer report. Often narrower and opinion-led, produced to answer one disputed question rather than to certify a state.
The last thing worth checking on any template: does it force a defined severity rating against every finding, and does it capture a real inspection sign off rather than a typed name in a text box.
