Posted By Charley Farley-Trelawney Top of the morning Joanne Under HASAWA & MHSAWR employers must care for the health and safety of its employees and those that may be affected by their undertaking. The fact that these high risk hazards present themselves as a predictable risk has also prompted some specific legislative requirements, such as those regarding electrical work, working at height and confined spaces to name a few. Permits to work have a legal importance and can be used to substantiate that you have provided a safe system of work. Those performing work under a permit to work system must adhere to the requirements, activities and practices recognized within the permit. It therefore naturally follows that the issue of such permits must only be undertaken by that competent person; someone with sufficient knowledge and experience etc etc be aware of their own limitations and so on and so forth. I would wish to establish that a person responsible for the issue of such permits was indeed knowledgeable in the chosen PTW area; this is fairly easily established, and even easier to prove in a court of law by specialist council that the CP was not actually suitably trained or indeed experienced in the issue and monitoring of PTW. You ask a really interesting question and I hope that I might have been able to answer it, all be it fairly broadly; no doubt you will let me know if you consider my answer insufficient a propos the issue raised. Charley

Posted By Joanne Corr Thanks guys, Yes i agree the person issuing the PTW must be comptetant in doing do, and be capable of monitoring the PTW. The problem is there is nothing in writing that says you must issue a permit to work, although it is oart of a safe system of work but still this i suppose a grey area.