The Role of a competent person

Health and safety practitioners, also known as health and safety officers, managers, advisers or consultants, seek to minimise the risk of injury and ill health at work. The role of a health and safety practitioner is to provide advice on planning, implementing, monitoring and reviewing protective and preventative health, safety and welfare measures.

How do you know your advisor is competent?

If you are seeking to contract with an external consultancy or employ an internal advisor, how do you know what role and function the competent person should take and what capabilities, knowledge and skills they would require to be effective.

How competent is your health and safety advisor?

Organisations have a legal duty to ensure arrangements for a competent person are in place, that the competent person is able to conduct their duties and has sufficient training and experience to perform their role.

Farm worker suffers serious injury due to faulty machinery

The agricultural industry is one of the most dangerous environments to work in from a health and safety perspective. With high rates of injury and fatalities employers need to be more vigilant than ever when it comes to the safety of their workers.

Breach of Health & Safety at Work Act leads to £600k fine for Textile Company

Handling large machinery always comes with associated risks and it can be impossible to pinpoint the injury rate for a particular type of machine.

When using heavy equipment, like a packaging machine, it is imperative to put a formalised safe system of work in place and to train workers appropriately. Daily safety checks and routine hygienic cleaning ensure that staff are not at risk of injury.

Failure to carry out correct Risk Assessments leads to two workers sustaining serious injury

Risk assessments can seem to be an endless task but if you fail to have them in place there can be serious consequences.

Businesses have a responsibility to ensure all staff are aware of and understand the risks associated with their work as well as the environment they work in. A failure to do this can result in large fines and opens up the possibility of accidents in the work place.

Devon Contractors fined for breach of Health & Safety at Work Regulations

When it comes to health and safety on a construction site, making sure workers have the correct training and undertake the required procedures is imperative.

Working with heavy machinery, construction equipment and vehicles comes with a number of risks meaning you could injure yourself, someone else or cause a fatality.

NEBOSH or IOSH - Which is right for me?

Are you trying to decide between a NEBOSH or IOSH course? Want to find out more about the difference between these qualification providers? Here we will answer some of the most common questions.

NEBOSH and IOSH provide widely recognised qualifications in health and safety. They both offer a selection of courses, tailored to different industries and job roles. Similarly, they are both members of the OSHCR, a public register of UK-based health and safety advice consultants.

There are, however, several differences between the two. The main distinction is that NEBOSH is an awarding body, whereas IOSH is a member organisation, as well as an awarding body.

Let’s look at a few more differences between the two qualification providers.

What jobs can a NEBOSH certificate get you?

The NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety can be the gateway to a variety of not just jobs, but careers. It is widely recognised as an ideal first step towards becoming a health and safety professional, often taken by people who have had health and safety as part of their duties and now wish to it to become their specialist field.

Who is responsible for H&S in workplace?

If you run or manage any kind of business or organisation you already know it, the health and safety buck stops with the boss.

Under UK law there's no doubt. It's every employer’s responsibility to protect the health and safety of their employees, and of anyone else who might be affected by the business, including customers, visitors and passers-by.

Health and safety law, what you need to know

What every employer needs to know about health and safety law

One of the best known legal maxims is that ignorance of the law is no defence. When it comes to health and safety, "I didn't know we couldn't do that" simply won't cut it in court. And not knowing the law makes you much more likely to end up there.

Why it's important to assess health and safety risks

In a nutshell there are two compelling reasons why it's important for an employer to assess health and safety risks in the workplace:

1. Because you want your employees, customers and visitors to be safe and healthy

2. Because you would be breaking the law if you failed to conduct an assessment.

How and when to report potential health and safety risks once they have been identified

"When should I report a health and safety concern?" is an easy question, because there's only one possible answer. As soon as possible - before something terrible happens. "How" is more complicated, because it depends on who you are and where you work.

Monitoring and reviewing H&S risk assessments

How health and safety risk assessments are monitored and reviewed

So you've conducted a health and safety assessment of your workplace and created a health and safety policy for the business. You're entitled to feel relieved; pleased that you've done all you need to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA).