quote=TSC]What are the general duties of a health and safety department? My list so far (being fairly non specific / detailed): * H&S Management System * Providing technical advice * Hazard Identification & Risk Assessment * Audits and Inspections * Incident Investigation * H&S Training * Contractor H&S (i.e. PQQ, inspections) * Maintaining H&S Accreditations * Dealing with enforcement bodies * Occupational Health * Emergency Preparedness (First Aid etc) * Project Planning (i.e. involvement in construction works prior to the work). * Fire Safety (Fire Risk Assessments, Plans etc) Is there anything else missing from this list??? Regards

Emergency & Business Continuity planning; first one is in the management regs so has to be a core duty really, the second one is optional, in that it could easily be somebody else, John

Then guessing there is a service/ops/facilties dept which will have management of specific issues as well. I'd also recommend that dept be enshired around the concept of 'advisory'. B

You may or may not consider this to be part of the management system, but :- Management reporting, board reports, KPI info and other statistical information. Security, is sometime included in H&S function. Also depending on organisation Environmental and Quality Assurance also included. You noted dealing enforcement authorities, but you also have to report to Clients and sometimes join in with client initiatives. You may also include outside of general risk assessment, specific risk reduction exercises (or even risk and cost reduction).

As Andrew B suggests at #2 the nature and extent of the duties of an OS&H department, team or individuals will depend largely on the nature and size of the company/organisation for which they work. Senior management's perceptions of what they think OS&H is or isn't about will also be a factor. As an aside, I've found from long experience or heard that other people in companies and organisation can have some strange ideas as to the remit of OS&H professionals and the range of advice they can give. In some cases, this stems from being unsure about or unable to find anyone else to ask or take over a problem or issue. Some warning of this arises if people phone up and start by saying "I'm not sure if you can help me but...." or "Someone suggested I contact you because it might have something to do with health and safety..." Perhaps the strangest query I ever had was from one of my former employer's secondary schools: An unusual looking bird had somehow got into the gymnasium. Though an external fire door had been opened for it to use as an exit, the throwing of a number of tennis balls at the bird had failed to persuade it to leave the gymnasium's high ceiling girders! What measures should the school try next? My response was that the circumstances were well outside the OS&H remit and I was no expert on birds. However, there seemed to be no harm in giving some "off the cuff" suggestions which might help: For a start don't throw any more balls at the bird as it was probably petrified by them in an alien indoor environment. Get everybody out of the gymnasium and leave the fire door open. Asking the school cooks for a piece of meat to place on the floor near the fire door as it might help to tempt the bird down from the girders. Also, why try contacting a falconer and/or getting some photos of the bird in order to identify its type. Furthermore, perhaps the local newspaper might be interested to have an unusual story for its next edition. Though I had no further involvement with the matter, it was nice to read the local paper a week later and see a brief article accompanied by a good telephoto of the bird which had been identified as a sparrowhawk.

As already indicated its down to the job spec and expectations that are outside of the JS + the individual as the list can be large for a worker and small for a person who keeps their head down and looks for an easy life One area is the issue of 'stopping job's' [to put it crudely] where those jobs put people at risk as that is an area that many people have duties under

One item not mentioned by anyone else is Hazid & Risk Assessment. It's pretty common but is, I believe, a significant error for any OSH professional or Group to be 'responsible' for this activity. Of course they should provide tools, training and, possibly, participation as 'expert advisor'/quality assurer. But line personnel should normally be responsible for leading the assessment, for involving those at risk where possible, recording significant findings, and then for implementing and monitoring controls. They may ask for OSH professional assistance, but should be taking the lead. If this doesn't happen, it's very likely they don't actually accept their personal responsibilities for ensuring that all risks are acceptably low.

Thanks for the input. I agree that it is down to the organisation and certain other aspects. I have a big problem in my predecessor decided to try and empire build and my team that I have inherited have become stuck down with admin, now I am changing this and ruffling feathers at the same time without trying. I have a service plan to establish for approval by board and my aim is a definitive list of what we manage or are responsible for. The key work in the plan and the key objective is that Everyone takes ownership of H&S in particular the supervisors and managers and that H&S is here as a supporting function of the business to help coach, educate, train and advise business representatives.