Posted By TBC Hi Paul The company obviously need a competent person for H&S to put on the paperwork in order to secure some work or orders. When I was doing the consultancy thing, I would only give the client the go-ahead to use my name if they had me on a retainer for at least a year. I would give them a certificate of confirmation (with start and finish dates) to say that I was retained by them and charge according to the size of company and potential for extras during the period of retention. The client's appreciated the cert and copied it to forward to their clients as proof. Hope it helps.

Posted By John Murphy PS. Here is an extract from the HELA circular on Regulation 7(8) This requires that where there is a competent person in the employer's employment, that person shall be appointed for the purposes of this Regulation, ie providing the employer with health and safety assistance in preference to a competent person who is not in their employment. It is important that this Regulation is NOT taken to mean that there is no role for external consultants. Employers who do not have sufficient competence themselves should look to appoint one or more of their employees who have the necessary means to provide health and safety assistance. If there are no (or an insufficient number of) relevant competent employees in the organisation, or their level of competence is insufficient to assist the employer in complying with health and safety law, the employer should enlist an external service or person. In some circumstances a combination of internal and external competent assistance might be appropriate.

Posted By steven bentham £50 per hour worked; £100 per week retainer for use of services and using your name