About the Workplace Compliance & Safety tests
~8 min read · Updated April 2026
Almost every UK job comes with a short stack of compliance certificates: food hygiene if you handle food, first aid if you're the named first-aider, fire safety wherever there are colleagues to evacuate, manual handling if you lift anything heavier than a laptop, plus general health & safety awareness and GDPR / data protection refreshers. Our free mocks mirror the standard awarding-body formats so you walk in knowing exactly what to expect.
These exams sit at the everyday end of UK compliance — not the high-stakes licence tests like CSCS, SIA or SERU (each of which now has its own dedicated category on UK Test Hub) — but they're still pass/fail with re-sit fees, and a fail can delay your start date or your shift rota.
What each test actually involves
Food Hygiene Level 2 is typically a 30-question online exam with a 75% pass mark, set against the CIEH/RSPH syllabus.
Emergency First Aid at Work theory is short but unforgiving — most providers test on the DRSABC sequence, the recovery position and CPR ratios in detail.
Fire Safety Awareness, Manual Handling and Health & Safety Awareness are usually 15–25 multiple-choice questions following HSE guidance, with pass marks around 75–80%. GDPR / Data Protection Awareness mocks cover the UK GDPR principles, lawful bases for processing and personal-data breach handling.
What's covered
Food Hygiene Level 2 follows the standard syllabus: personal hygiene, allergens, the four Cs (Cleaning, Cooking, Chilling, Cross-contamination), temperature control, pests and the Food Safety Act 1990.
First Aid covers DRSABC, the recovery position, adult and child CPR ratios, choking, bleeding and shock. Fire Safety covers fire triangle theory, extinguisher classes, evacuation procedures and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Manual Handling covers TILE/TILEO assessment, safe lifting technique and the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. GDPR mocks cover the seven principles, data subject rights, lawful bases and the 72-hour breach notification rule to the ICO.
How to study and pass first time
For Food Hygiene, memorise the temperature danger zone (8°C to 63°C), core cooking temperature (75°C for 30 seconds or equivalent) and the four Cs.
For First Aid, the order DRSABC is tested almost every time, alongside CPR ratios (30 compressions to 2 breaths for adults).
For Fire Safety, learn the extinguisher colour codes (red = water, cream = foam, blue = dry powder, black = CO₂, yellow = wet chemical) and which class of fire each one is for.
For GDPR, the seven principles (lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity & confidentiality, accountability) come up in almost every paper.
Common mistakes to avoid
On Food Hygiene, the most missed question is the difference between use-by and best-before dates: use-by is a safety date, best-before is a quality date.
On Fire Safety, candidates wrongly use water on electrical or oil fires — water is for Class A (paper, wood, fabric) only.
On GDPR, candidates conflate 'consent' with the only lawful basis for processing — there are six lawful bases, and consent is often the weakest one to rely on.
Why practice tests work
Compliance certificates are pass/fail and most charge a re-sit fee of £15–£40. Practising the real format eliminates the surprise element so you can focus on the content.
Mocks build the procedural memory you need under pressure. By the third or fourth full paper, the temperature thresholds, extinguisher colours, lifting steps and lawful bases come back automatically.