Posted By Phil Errup
I'm at sixes and sevens with this one.

Can someone with no formal qualifications, but 15 years experience in the cleaning industry, give suitable Coshh training to his employees on their cleaning products. Obviously most will be low hazard, but is it sufficient?

In fact he gives the employers all their training, manual handling, basic health and safety etc.

He gets his info from the HSE website. Whilst I respect his efforts, and indeed experience, is it enough if there is an incident and training records show no training by anyone formally qualified. Sorry for repeating myself, but I do not want anyone throwing the "competency" bit in. Thats not why or what I am asking.

Many thanks

Posted By Chris Packham
I would suggest that much will depend (a) upon the level of experience and training that the person doing the training has, (b) his commitment to learning about the hazards, (c) the hazards that are present in the workplace, which will depend upon the nature of the task. "Cleaning" is a very generic term. Cleaning offices is one thing, cleaning an oil rig or chemical plant something quite different.

So, in my opinion, the answer could be yes but equally could be no. I train on safe use of chemicals, selection and use of gloves, etc. I may have no formal qualifications in health and safety, but 30 years of working, learning and experience in my particular specialist aspect of health and safety means, I think, that I can safely do this.

I hope that this is of some help, even if it does not answer your question directly.

Chris