Radiation Inspection in Qatar: What to Expect
September 19, 2026
9 min read
DITEC Experts, Radiation Protection Team, ALDuha Institute for Training and Environmental Consulting
The person at the gate is a judicial officer
Article 16 of Law 31/2002 does something that changes the nature of a radiation inspection: it confers the status of judicial police officers on General Secretariat staff seconded by decision of the Council Chairman, and on staff of other administrative bodies seconded to the Council for the purpose.
That status is granted for a defined purpose - establishing the offences committed in breach of the Law, its Executive Regulation and the decisions issued to implement it - and it carries the powers that go with it: inspection of all places carrying on activity in the fields of radiation work, the right to enter at any time the places where violations occur, the drawing up of seizure reports, and the taking of the legal procedures laid down.
The practical reading is uncomfortable but useful: a radiation inspection is not an audit visit that can be rescheduled to suit the production plan. What is recorded in a seizure report is evidence in a criminal file.
No prior notice - but two limits on that
Article 23 of the Regulation is explicit: inspectors of radiation protection at the Council may carry out inspection rounds without prior notice on anyone possessing a radioactive source or carrying on a radiation practice, to verify the availability of the radiation precautions and protection systems provided for in the Law or issued by the Committee.
The same article then limits the power twice, and both limits are easy to miss. The inspectors must observe the safety conditions particular to each facility - which is what allows a site to require its induction, its personal protective equipment and its escort before anyone walks into a live area. And the rounds take place during each facility's official working hours, and within the bounds of the fields of radiation work and its protection requirements.
Read together: unannounced, yes; unbounded, no. The visit is scoped to the radiation work and what protection from it requires, and the site's safety rules are not suspended by the inspector's arrival. Asserting either of those is legitimate. Using them to delay entry is not.
The seven grounds for an inspection round
Article 23 lists the purposes for which a round is carried out. Reading them as a list rather than as prose is worth the minute it takes, because three of the seven are not what a facility expects.
Article 23 - the purposes
Expected
- A new licence - the round that precedes or accompanies the decision.
- Periodic inspection work.
- Emergencies and radiation accidents.
- Verifying that the required licence has been obtained, and controlling unlicensed cases.
- Confirming the existence of radiation protection precautions, records and other detections.
Less expected, and worth noting
- A round in response to a request from the institution concerned, or from one of its own workers. A worker with a concern has a route to an inspection that does not pass through his employer.
- Any other cases the Council considers connected with implementing the Law and this Regulation - an open ground, which is why a facility should not build its readiness around the periodic visit alone.
What the facility is obliged to produce
Article 22 sets the duty from the other side, and it has two limbs. The first is access: every natural or legal person holding a radioactive source must permit judicial officers and those charged with inspection to inspect the facilities where sources are handled, pursuant to Article 16 of the Law, for the purpose of obtaining information on the extent of that person's compliance with the Law, this Regulation and the implementing decisions.
The second limb is the one that decides how a visit goes: the licensee must supply the Council with the information and records relating to protection and safety, and in particular those concerning the storage and use of the source. Storage and use are named specifically. A facility that can account for where each source is, and what it has been used for, has answered the question the article is actually asking.
Article 24 completes the picture and is worth reading for what it implies: the inspection instructions - the conditions an inspector must satisfy, the duties and powers of inspectors, and the methods of inspection - are issued by decision of the Chairman. The inspector's own powers and duties are therefore a published instrument, not a matter of practice, and a facility is entitled to know them.
What we would keep ready, and why
What follows is the Institute's practical guidance rather than a requirement of the Regulation, and it is written the way it is because the articles above name what will be asked for. Nothing here adds an obligation; it only shortens the time between the question and the answer.
A file that answers Articles 22 and 23 without a search
| Keep ready | Which article it answers |
|---|---|
| The licence itself, current, with its conditions | Article 23(5) - verifying the required licence has been obtained |
| A source inventory: what is held, its activity, where it is stored, who signed it out and when | Article 22 - the records relating to the storage and use of the source |
| Personal dose records and the medical monitoring record for each worker | Article 23(6) - the records and other detections; Article 25 - monitoring |
| Personnel file: qualification, medical fitness, training record | Article 25 - the verification before employment, and the training duty |
| Area designation and survey results for controlled and supervised areas | Article 23(6) - the radiation protection precautions; Article 26 - areas |
| The emergency plan, and the record of the last time it was exercised | Article 23(4) - emergencies and radiation accidents |
Frequently asked questions
Can we ask the inspector to come back another day?
Article 23 permits rounds without prior notice, and Article 22 obliges the holder to permit the inspection. There is no provision for rescheduling. What the facility may legitimately require is compliance with the safety conditions particular to it, which Article 23 expressly preserves - induction, protective equipment, escort into a live area. That is a condition of entry, not a postponement of it.
Can an inspection be triggered by one of our own employees?
Yes. Among the purposes listed in Article 23 is a round in response to a request from the institution concerned or from one of its workers. The route exists by design, and a facility that treats an internal concern as an internal matter only should know that the worker has another route.
Does an inspector have the right to enter outside working hours?
Two provisions sit side by side and they are not the same. Article 23 places inspection rounds during each facility's official working hours. Article 16 of the Law gives judicial officers the right to enter at any time the places where violations occur. The routine round is time-bounded; the judicial power attached to establishing an offence is not.
Where are the inspector's own duties written down?
Article 24: the inspection instructions on persons and facilities are issued by a decision of the Chairman containing the conditions required in the inspector, the duties and powers of inspectors, and the methods of inspection. It is a separate instrument from the Regulation, and asking the competent authority for the current version is a reasonable request rather than a confrontational one.
How the Institute can help
The facilities that find inspection uneventful are rarely the ones with the best equipment. They are the ones that can put their hands on six documents in ten minutes.
ALDuha Institute prepares facilities for radiation inspection: reviewing the records against what Articles 22 and 23 actually name, training the radiation protection officer on the role he is expected to perform during a round, and rehearsing the visit before it happens rather than after.
Scope of what the Institute does: training and consulting. Field radiation surveys are carried out through specialist partners working in the field. The Institute does not carry out laboratory analysis, instrument calibration or equipment testing.
This explanation is published for awareness by the radiation protection team at ALDuha Institute for Training and Environmental Consulting. The English text is an explanation, not a certified translation: the Arabic text published in the Official Gazette governs in case of any difference, and this article does not replace the official text or advice from the competent authority. Last updated 19 September 2026.