Guidance for Responding To
Unannounced Regulatory Inspections of Your Facility
Agents
from government regulatory agencies may show up at your doorstep on campus
without prior notification. Should
inspectors from any local (Palo Alto, Santa Clara County), state (e.g. Cal-EPA,
Department of Toxic Substances Control, Cal-OSHA) or federal governmental
agency (e.g. federal EPA, Department of Transportation, Drug Enforcement
Administration) appear in your department offices or laboratories and ask to
conduct an inspection or review documents, please do the following:
1.
Be
courteous. Stanford fully cooperates
with all regulatory officials while maintaining our rights to ensure
inspections are lawful and to have agency officials accompanied by appropriate
University and School representatives. Request that the inspectors refrain from
conducting their inspection until you contact a University and/or a School
official who can be present at the inspection.
You can politely state
that you do not have authority to authorize an inspection and that you will
contact the appropriate university officials who can provide the necessary
consent. Typically, someone will
arrive to accompany the investigators within 15 to 30 minutes. If there is break room or waiting area
nearby, ask the inspectors to wait there, preferably accompanied by a
department representative.
2.
Call the
University EH&S office: 723-0448, identify
yourself and your location, and inform the operator that inspectors from a
regulatory agency (mention which one) are in your department and you are
calling to request EH&S send a representative to accompany them on their
inspection. In the School of Medicine,
call the School’s Health and Safety Programs Office: 723-0110. If you are transferred to voice mail, call 723-6336. (If you cannot reach an official at EH&S
or in the School, contact the Office of the General Counsel at 723-9611.)
3.
Refrain from answering any specific questions until someone from the
University or School’s Health and Safety Programs Office arrives. Most important, do not speculate. Be strictly factual in any information you
provide. It is acceptable to say that
you do not know the answer to a question, but will forward it to the
appropriate person for a response.
4.
If the inspectors are not willing to wait to begin the inspection or
search, do the following:
a.
Request
identification from the inspectors or get their business cards. Call the number on the card to verify that
the person is an employee of the organization noted on the business card.
b.
Request
a copy of a warrant; or if there is no warrant, request the legal authority
under which they are acting, e.g., the specific legal
statutory authority.
c.
If there
is a warrant, immediately contact the Stanford General Counsel’s Office at 723-6397 and fax a copy of the warrant (723-4323). Tell the inspector that the University is
represented by counsel and ask that the search be delayed until counsel is
present.
d.
Alert someone in your department to call EH&S and the
e.
Ask if
they will be conducting a general inspection or are responding to a specific
issue.
f.
Accompany them and take notes concerning what is searched or reviewed,
and what is taken.
g.
Write down any questions that they ask, including searching for items
that are not located.
h.
Ask for an inventory or copy of all items taken or removed from the
premises.
i.
You have the right to speak or to not speak to the inspectors. You can choose to have a University lawyer
present, if you decide to speak to the inspectors.
j.
Do not interfere with the search or inspection.