Do you need to appoint a Competent Person to advise your business?

The competent person role comes from Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. This legislation states that

Every employer shall … 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

The regulation recognises that –

👉 We can’t all be experts in everything. An employer is busy running their business and needs to be on top of

📉 HR

📉 Sales

📉 The business finances

📉 Day to day business operations

👉Health and safety requires specialist knowledge:

📋 A detailed understanding of the regulatory framework

📋 Technical knowledge about the tasks carried out by workers

📋 Keeping up to date with changes in guidance, legislation and technology

They need to appoint someone to support them with managing the health and safety of workers and the public in their business. That person must be competent to provide this support.

What makes them competent?

A person shall be regarded as competent … where he has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable him properly to assist in undertaking the measures…

A competent person must be

✅ Trained

✅ Experienced

✅ Have knowledge to enable them to properly assist.

It isn’t enough for an employer to put a member of staff through an IOSH managing safely course. They need to have a suitable level of training (Think NEBOSH general certificate or above), industry specific training (confined space, work at height etc) AND undertkae ongoing CPD to keep up to date with changes in guidance and best practice.

An employer must also support the competent person by –

✅ Ensuring adequate cooperation between themselves and the competent person

✅ Giving them adequate information about factors that may affect the health and safety of their staff

✅ Ensuring that they have enough time to fulfill this function

✅ Making sure that they have adequate means at their disposal for the undertaking of this role

In a nutshell, an employer needs to make sure that the competent person has enough information, time and resources to fulfill this role.

The competent role can require significant input from an employer if they don’t have someone suitable trained and experienced in their employment. That is why so many businesses choose to outsource that role to a health and safety consultancy.

An experienced health and safety consultant will support an employer by

✅ Knowing what questions to ask to gain adequate information

✅ Managing their time to make sure they are fulfilling this function properly

✅ Having adequate means at their disposal – this is their job, after all

You get access to experts in health and safety who take the time to understand your business, and the needs of your staff. Your appointed consultant will make sure that they are fully up to date with guidance and industry best practice so that your business is safe and compliant with UK law.

The competent person role may be a full time undertaking for your business. It often makes sense to keep this role in house if you are operating at this scale. If you run a smaller operation, where the role can be fulfilled in a day a month, or even a day a week, it probably isn’t going to be cost effective for you to employ a staff member to fulfill this duty. In this case, building a relationship with an effective health and safety consultancy will be a great option for you. A good consultancy will be able to accommodate your changing needs for safety advice – giving you more time when the projects your business is working on demand it, and reducing hours when your business is in a quieter phase.

If you want to chat to a safety advisor to find out if an outsourced competent person role is the best fit for your business, send us an email and let’s chat!