We currently have as our competent person a member of a sister company in our corporation, and although she has the competency to act as this, she does not have the time to be involved in our day to day business. We do not have anyone in house who has the same level of competency, although I will be starting my Nebosh training in November so we are looking to improve this and I currently act as a H and S liaison person, so we are looking to outsource and engage a H and S consultant. My question is that, if a consultant says they will act as our competent person, is that different than them saying that they will act as part of our competent person in conjunction with someone in the business? We are looking at 2 different consultants, one says they will be competent person, one says they will be part of our competent person in conjunction with us. I have read all of the HSE website guidance and I am still confused. I wonder whether someone could give me some definite advice?

Hi A competent person is someone who has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities that allow them to assist you properly. The level of competence required will depend on the complexity of the situation and the particular help you need. A competent person is not someone who simply has the competence to carry out a particular task safely. In general terms, the definition of a competent person is someone who has the necessary skills, experience and knowledge to manage health and safety. When getting help, you should give preference to those in your own organisation who have the appropriate level of competence (which can include the employer themselves) before looking for help from outside. If its general H&S you may require within your company, someone within your company could be the H&S adviser if they had the level of competence required to fulfill that role. You may have an in-house adviser and an external H&S consultant working together, a lot of company's do this. Depending or your requirements a certain level of competency must be sourced. For-instance, even though I am the health and safety manager for a national company there are occasions when I have to deal with situations that are out of my area of competence, when this is the case I will source a person, firm or consultant who may have the level of competence required to carry out a particular task. So as Ian in the last post stated "it depends" Good luck

cj, I work as a consultant. I present myself as the client's 'access to competent health and safety advice'. The client appoints a manager to work with me, someone I liaise with, someone who remains 'responsible for the company's H&S'. John