A Health and Safety Bulletin by Christie Insurance

According to regulation 7 of the ‘Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999’
“Every employer shall, subject to paragraphs (6) and (7), appoint one or more Competent Persons to assist him in undertaking the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions and by part II of the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997.”

Although this may already sound vague, the legislation also explains that a person is regarded as ‘competent’ if they have sufficient training, experience or knowledge and ‘other qualities’ which still leaves many questions unanswered.

Do I need to appoint a Competent Person?

The requirement to have a Competent Person applies to every workplace. It does not matter if you employ one person or one hundred, there are no exceptions.

You may find that within your business you either do not have any employees that match the criteria, or you do not have enough staff able to take on extra responsibilities. In these cases, the Health and Safety Executive advise that if you are not confident of your ability to manage all Health and Safety in-house or if you are a higher-risk organisation, then you may need some external assistance or advice.

In order to make sure whomever you appoint externally can be your Competent Person, you should consider the following questions:

Has the identified individual had training?

For example, have they attending a Health and Safety course that has been accredited by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

Does this person have practical knowledge?

In other words, just attending a theory course is not enough, your Competent Person will also need to have practical knowledge and experience.

Do they have the appropriate skills?

Your Competent Person will need the technical ability to be able to develop solutions to problems.

Are they familiar with the organisation?

They will need to know the ins and outs of the way that your business functions, understand who is responsible for what and be well-informed about any hazards.

Do they have good awareness skills?

A Competent Person will need to be alert at all times in order to recognise any potential hazards and take action.

Have they been given authority?

They need to be able to immediately correct any hazards that they notice or be able to influence someone who can.

For more information, please contact us on 01908 920570