You have to appoint a competent person. Here's how to choose the right one.
Every employer must appoint one or more competent persons to help meet their health and safety duties. A competent person is someone with the skills, knowledge and experience to manage health and safety, not just someone who can do a particular task safely. You can appoint yourself or a member of staff if you genuinely have the knowledge and time, or you can bring in an external consultant. This page covers how to choose, and what to check before you do.
It usually comes down to a choice.
When it comes to appointing a competent person, you have two routes. Whichever you take, the legal duty to comply stays with you as the employer. What changes is where the knowledge sits.
If you had a serious incident tomorrow, would your decisions stand up?
Here's the question to ask yourself. That's the real measure of competence. It isn't about being able to run the job safely. It's about understanding the legislation well enough that, when it's tested, your decisions hold.
Being able to run a job safely isn't the same as competence. The measure is whether you understand the legislation well enough to defend the decisions you made, or didn't make.
If a serious accident or incident happened tomorrow, could you confidently answer questions about the decisions that contributed to it? If not, the role is better filled by someone who can.
A mistake here, even with the best intentions, can lead to a prosecution or fine. That won't be covered by your insurance, so the cost lands on you personally.
If you go external, treat it like any other serious hire.
Don't pay for a faceless service. Before you appoint an external consultant as your competent person, check these four things.
Make sure they've worked in your industry and understand its specific risks, not just general health and safety.
Check the support is built around your business, not a one-size template, and that you're not buying a call centre.
Ask to see how they've worked with other clients and real examples of the difference they made.
Check their professional qualifications, and whether they can draw on associated specialists for areas like fire, training, and mental health and stress management.
The difference between a competent person on paper and one who actually protects you.
As part of our retained health and safety service, we act as your competent person. Your named, qualified consultant provides advice and guidance when you need it, learns how your business runs, and keeps your H&S current as the law changes. The same person, every time, who already knows your business when you call. A name on a form won't know your site or your risks, and that's exactly what an inspector or your insurer will test.
The H&S specialist who acts as your competent person.
You get one named consultant, qualified in health and safety, and you keep them. They learn your sites, your people and the way you actually work, so when you ring, they already know your business and stand behind the advice they give.
“I work with businesses to provide practical, hands-on health and safety advice. It's important that you have the right systems and procedures in place, but they need to be written for your business and not just be generic. We provide a very hands-on approach with one nominated consultant as your point of contact — no call centres.”
Book a free reviewCommon competent person questions
Who can be a competent person for health and safety?
Do I legally have to appoint a competent person?
Can I be my own competent person?
What should I look for when outsourcing the competent person role?
Put a competent person’s eye to work — twelve common hazards, HSE-aligned scoring and a worked example, ready to complete. Free 30-minute review.
A checklist gets you started. Filling the role properly is the hard part.
Knowing what to look for is one thing. Having a competent person who actually stands up when something goes wrong is another. Book a free review and we'll tell you honestly whether you need an external competent person, and what's missing if you don't. No script and no obligation.