In October we reported on the results of Lord Young’s review of Health and Safety in the UK. One of the concerns expressed by Lord Young is in respect of poor advice from consultants who may lack necessary experience and/or not be adequately qualified for the role they undertake.
At present, there are no real constraints on who can set up as a Health and Safety Consultant and obviously anyone who is not properly qualified is unlikely to advertise the fact to the big wide world.
Our recommendation to any organisation that is thinking of turning to a consultant or of hiring someone to run their Health and Safety is to thoroughly check their qualifications and experience.
A New Registration System
A new initiative is set to be implemented in January 2011 that will help organisations to locate consultants with the highest qualifications and relevant experience. It will also be a strong incentive for less qualified people to attain to the same high standards. This is a new register of consultants, known formally as the Occupational Safety Consultants Register or OSCR
As mentioned above, only consultants with the highest qualifications and experience will be able to apply for inclusion. They will be required to have:
- A degree level qualification
- Chartered membership of IOSH, CIEH or REHIS or fellow of IIRSM
- A minimum of two years’ Assessed Experience
- Professional Indemnity Insurance
They will also be required to sign up to a Code of Conduct requiring that they provide only sensible and proportionate advice.
Who’s Involved?
A number of organisations have been involved in designing the registration system, including the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) along with professional bodies that represent UK Health and Safety practitioners, including:
- BOHS – British Occupational Hygiene Society
- BSC – British Safety Council
- BSIF – British Safety Industry Federation
- CIEH – Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
- IEHF – Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors
- IIRSM – International Institute of Risk and Safety Management
- IOSH – Institution of Occupational Safety and Health
- NEBOSH – National Exam Board in Occupational Safety and Health
- REHIS – Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland
- ROSPA – Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
Who can Register?
Registration with the scheme will be voluntary but clearly there will be a strong commercial incentive for those who are qualified to do so and for those who are not yet qualified to work towards becoming eligible.
All of this means that as of January next year, organisations who need high quality, reliable advice will be able to consult a single website to find registered professional people with the particular experience they need.
You can view a useful Question and Answer page about the register on the HSE’s website.
EDP has long been a strong advocate of properly qualified professional people who have the experience and support to provide the best available advice for every situation.
