Competent person

A competent person is designated by a company to ensure that the company's health and safety responsibilities are being met.[1][2] This may be a legal obligation required of the company, to ensure that the business understands, and can act on, the health and safety risks that might occur during their particular type of work.[2]

United Kingdom

The forerunner to the Competent Person Scheme in the UK was the 1991 Building Regulations Act, which enabled gas-heating appliance installers to self-certify that their work was safe and legal, rather than needing external checking. Then from 2002 to 2010, a series of Competent Person Schemes were implemented widely in the building sector to enable builders to self-certify that their work meets regulations in eighteen different fields.[3] By 2019, an estimated 85% of all building work requiring the notification of building control bodies was self-certified, and therefore no longer subject to external inspection.[4] In 2012, a UK government report found that 'although the reports received indicate that most schemes have been operating effectively and have proved to be a success, the latest report in 2009 found that some schemes were not complying fully with their conditions of authorisation or achieving a sufficiently high level of compliance with the Building Regulations'.[4][3]

Recognition of competence is defined as requiring "sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities" to be able to effectively oversee health and safety in the business,[2] although specialised industries may have additional, more specific requirements.[5]

For building trades, there are, as of February 2020, eighteen Competent Person Schemes including:[6]

  • Fensa (for windows)
  • HETAS (for biomass and solid fuel)
  • NICEIC (for electrical installations)

United States

While the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) does not have specific standards about competent persons, several industry-specific standards do have requirements for the designated competent persons to follow.[7] These standards address multiple aspects of construction, gear certification, longshoring, shipyards, as well as general industry.

References

  1. ^ "Safety and Health Topics Competent Person Occupational Safety and Health Administration". www.osha.gov. Retrieved 2019-04-27.
  2. ^ a b c "The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999". www.legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  3. ^ a b Changes to the Conditions of Authorisation for Building Regulations Competent Person Self-certification Schemes: Final impact assessment (London: Department for Communities and Local Government, June 2012), pp. 3-5. ISBN 9781409834328.
  4. ^ a b Hodkinson, Stuart (2019). Safe as Houses: Private Greed, Political Negligence and Housing Policy after Grenfell. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 44. ISBN 9781526141866.
  5. ^ "What is Competence? - Competence in health and safety". www.hse.gov.uk. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  6. ^ "Competent person scheme - current schemes and how schemes are authorised". GOV.UK. 2018-03-12. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  7. ^ "Safety and Health Topics | Competent Person - OSHA Standards | Occupational Safety and Health Administration". www.osha.gov. Retrieved 2019-04-27.


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