The consultant would be appointed under the Managament of health and safety Regulations, not the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Although the MHSWR Regs are made under the HASWA Act.

I would suggest that it depends upon who has the executive authority. If the H&S consultant can only advise and it is up to the relevant manager in the organisation to decide what action to take, then the responsibility rests with that manager. I have yet to encounter a situation where, as a consultant, I was in a position to actually make the executive decision, e.g. to change the process or order a particular item of equipment. I would be interested to know whether anyone else has ever, as a consultant, been in an executive situation.

Sean, I advise my clients. I claim to be competent (not tested in court) and my clients choose to accept or reject my advice and whether to follow my recommendations. Some clients rely on me very heavily for much of their specific H&S input, other choose to use my services to fill a gap in their own internal resources. Thus I am their "competent person" for some activities.

In every case, my client remains responsible for the H&S of their activities and accountable to the Authorities for failures. If my advice is incorrect, I too will be accountable.

This works in a similar way to accountants who are contracted to advise, although a director has to sign the accounts. They may rely very heavilly on the advice but retain overall responsibility and accountability.

Sean,

Nearly every organisation in the UK engages the services of external competent persons, particularly for the more specialist areas (Occ. Hygiene, Occ. Health, etc.)
We need to be careful of terms here. I wouldn't suggest that "oversee H&S and act on the companies behalf" id entirely accurate - as others say managers have the legal duty to manage, but competent persons are legally accountable for their acts and omissions.

Sean,
You have been mis-informed. Just type "Competent Person" into the HSE website search information. Or go here:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/bu...ess/competent-advice.htm

As several posters have pointed out the competent person can be either an employee or an external adviser. Indeed the link above states it could be "yourself" i.e. the duty holder, the employer.

The crucial test is whether the person is competent... that has sufficient technical knowledge and practical expertise/experience.... of risk management, the trade or business occupation etc etc.
Phil