Doing nothing makes the compliance officer complicit, going straight to the HSE is not a good option either. The compliance officer needs to approach the plant manager and have a discussion about the legal, moral and financial implications of what has been done.

I have also been in similar situation, the only way in which I could resolve for my own peace of mind was to bring the action the senior manager advise that this is an accident waiting to happen and document the conversation. You have at least bought it to the attention of the correct person with the reason why it should be remedied

Latchy some good advice so far I would raise this with the plant managers line ,manager but also inform the director of the business as he has overall responsibility for the safety You could also go down the route informing them that as a member of IOSH you have a duty under the code of conduct as below 4.6 Inform any person overruling or neglecting their professional advice of the potential adverse consequences and keep a written record of the date, time and nature of this action. As a health and safety professional, you may find employers or clients occasionally either ignore your advice or fail to act on all of it within your recommended timescales. There can be times when the employer or client is ignoring advice on something that presents an imminent danger to the workforce. Health and safety professionals are required to exercise professional independence and to remain as objective as they can. If you believe your advice is not being followed, you should take reasonable steps to make the person overruling your advice aware of the potential consequences. This would normally be in writing, and you should ask for a confirmation receipt. If this does not work, then you are expected to escalate the matter to the next tier of management in a further effort to see changes implemented. In a situation where you have a genuine concern that death or serious injury might result, then the right thing to do is contact an enforcement agency such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). You are expected to “do the right thing” regardless of the possible cost to you. In extreme cases, this might mean resigning or ending a relationship with a client. HSE provides information on the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, which is designed to protect workers who ‘blow the whistle’ about a wrong-doing. A wrong-doing may include where you have a reasonable belief that your disclosure tends to show one or more of the following: a criminal offence; a breach of a legal obligation; a miscarriage of justice; a danger to the health and safety of any individual; damage to the environment; or the deliberate covering- up of information tending to show any of the above. Chris

1. Report back to the agency on what has been found and seek guidance on how they wish you to proceed when you find such significant failures. 2. If they confirm it is part of your contract to follow up on any non conformance then: 2.1. Discuss your observations with the manager concerned to establish why he acted that way. Don't assume it was a positive action simply because you have recognised it as bad practice. 2.2. If it was a positive action then advise the manager that it will be reported as a significant failure of OSH controls prompted by the managers actions. You will need to establish how many times it happens; how many machines involved etc in order to identify the magnitude. 2.3 Then demonstrate to the manager the impact on the risks (via the risk assessment?) and make sure that is also in your report. n.b I am not talking about the risks of OSH legal non-compliance here but the change in the failure rate and subsequent consequences to the business. 2.3. If it was another cause (e.g been accepted practice for many years, ignorance of the real impact on risk etc) then it is still reported but the tone and recommendations of your report are obviously different. 3. If they confirm that your function is limited to audit and report then you do just that. Include the detail as above to help the client understand the problem clearly. 4. Make sure that, for the future, you get an understanding with the agency and/or employer as to your role and function. Dealing with such situations can be as difficult or easy as you make them. The error is not yours, the duty to inform most definitely is. I doubt that you have a duty to ensure compliance or indeed any authority to approve and action any recommendations that you make in order that compliance is achieved. If compliance is not forthcoming after your report or other interventions then you may well need to escalate things to a higher level. The level depends on the significance you place on the non-compliance. Take care however to make sure that you have been around the circle before reporting outside that circle. It is only after confirming that no timely improvements are going to be made that I would consider reporting to the enforcement agencies. In other words avoid making it bigger than it needs to be to get the improvements required.