The word Competent Person is banded around in Health and Safety, often leading to lack of clarity. This lack of clarity is actually pretty important and stems from the 'one rule for all' doesn't work in health and safety.
Let's look into the common grey confusing area of health and safety compliance.
Take the much debated minimum and maximum working temperatures that seems to appear on the daily mail when temperatures soars with a headline along the lines of 'Britain Temperatures Soars - It's Too Hot To Work'. Let's get something straight, there are no exact temperature requirements for working in the UK, why? Simple, an office environment may become too hot to work when temperatures exceed 30 Degrees Celsius, but what about those work in foundries, where temperatures exceed 40+ Degrees Celsius. This is where the terminology 'Reasonably Practicable' comes into play, another apparent grey area.
Reasonably Practicable
Is it reasonable for an office worker to work in 40 Degree Celsius office environments? Probably not, a reasonable solution to this may be to install air conditioning, provide fans and allowing workers to wear relaxed workwear. All of this, with the exception of Air conditioning is cheap, easy to implement and reasonably practicable.
Let's take those hard foundry workers working well in excess of 40 Degree Celsius Heat. Is it reasonable that they work in the heat? Yes, it's part of the job. Is it reasonable or practicable to allow workers to wear casual work wear, install air conditioning or work in the vicinity of fans? No, the workers must wear appropriate PPE at all times, despite the heat. Other measures in place may be short work patterns, increased breaks away from the heat, wellness checks etc.
One rule cannot possibly apply to all industries - fact.
Competent Person
The same grey areas applies to a Competent Person, what is deemed competent H&S personnel for a foundry is far different from a competent person working within the leisure industries.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) describes a competent person as "A competent person is someone who has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities that allow them to assist you properly. The level of competence required will depend on the complexity of the situation and the particular help you need."
Just because someone is qualified, does not make them competent.
At Sure Right Risk Management all of our health and safety experts are qualified to a minimum NEBOSH General Certificate, registered with IOSH but more importantly have worked in a variety of demanding industries prior to joining us, bringing that vital experience with them. This experience allows them to fully support clients, ensuring that your business continues to operate with minimal red tape disruption.
Get in touch with one of our experts today and see how Sure Right Risk Management can act as your legal Competent Person.