Hi All I am sure that this has been posted on this forum before so I have looked though but I cant find the answer. I am sorry for the long post but I want to give you all as much detail as possible. I have been tasked with finding out about Harness, lanyards, absorbers etc inspections. At present we have a guy that inspects all our harnesses etc every 6 months, he checks them and then issues a certificate to say if they have passed or not. He has completed the IPAF harness use and inspection course, which is the same course we give all our staff that require the use of harnesses etc in MEWP's. This guy is now leaving so it has come down to me to carry out the harnesses etc inspections, produce the certificates and clear them for use which I want to add I dont mind doing (another string on my CV). My boss has asked me to look into what course I need to do to achieve this. I contacted IPAF and asked if the Harness use and inspection course allowed me to inspect all harnesses etc and issue certificates for our 6 monthly inspections. The reply i got was " please speak to Spanset". So I contacted Spanset with the same question their reply was "Unless you did the IPAF harness instructor course you would NOT be able to carry out inspections and issue certificates for harnesses etc" Of course Spanset do a Competent person course, which in all fairness seems to be quite a good course, but costs a lot more than the IPAF harness course. I then received another email from a different person from IPAF stating " The IPAF harness course instructs a user to select and use a harness and associated equipment safely when using a MEWP. Therefore you should be fine to inspect the harness and lanyard." Now the use of "therefore you should be fine" does have me slightly worried. I am really confused about what to do next. Do I do the course that Spanset say or the course through IPAF??? Does anyone know what my next steps should be? I will be speaking to my boss when she is back but I do want to have as much info as possible first. If anyone has any advice I would be really grateful Thanks in advance George

Very often a competent person from an insurance (your insurer) will check the harnesses and issue a cert every 6 months - saves a lot of hassle. End users need to inspect them each time they use them of course.