You must appoint a competent person (or people) to help you meet your health and safety legal duties. This includes for the intricacies of the requirements for safe and healthy home working.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require that employers appoint one or more ‘competent persons’ to assist them in undertaking the measures needed to comply with legal requirements and prohibitions.
Some of this assistance may come from competent individuals from inside a company. This may be from more than one person offering different skills, training and experience.
Many businesses develop in-house competence to manage their health and safety risks and do not need to use health and safety consultants.
Developing in-house competence does not necessarily require formal health and safety qualifications; for low-risk businesses, following HSE guidance may normally be enough.
In terms of the skills mix, this may come from a single person or a team of people within an organisation and could be supplemented by an external health and safety consultancy.
However, any advice given by an external consultancy still has to be coordinated and implemented in-house.
It is therefore important to address any shortcomings as far as in-house experience is concerned. This could mean a training programme so that you can start to have more ownership and hence more control over your own health and safety management.
It must be noted that directors of a company (and sometimes individuals such as managers and supervisors) can be held personally liable for any health and safety failings or negligence, especially where there is a fatality.
MD safety offers a competent person service for Companies. We act as Health and Safety Advisors and simultaneously encourage our Clients to begin to assess their requirements for in-house competence.
This is offered at only £200 ex VAT on an annual opt-in basis (this includes telephone/email support on a onday-Friday, 9-5 basis backed up with an Advisor Certificate).
Please get in touch if you would like MD Safety to provide this service or if you need any additional information.
