Posted By Greg Duncan LOLER Regs state that lifting accessories require thorough examination by a competant person at least 6 monthly. Our lifting/rigging supervisor is a qualified appointed person, has at least 20 years experience in his field and posseses IOSH managing safety cert, does this qualify him as competant to thouroughly examine lifting accessories? All replies gratefully received. Greg

Posted By Danny Swygart In my opinion you would be wise to send him on a course specifically for the inspection of Lifting Equipment, you could then argue that this coupled with his experience would make him competent. Further advice can be obtained from the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association - www.leea.co.uk. Courses are also run by the CITB. He would also need to be able to make independant decisions on whether to pass or fail equipment without undue influence from management.

Posted By George Wedgwood My extensive experience in engineering aspects of inspection and the related competence required, tells me that a short course or rigging 'qualification' would not suffice entirely for structural integrity defects on lifting equipment or for the more complex lifting operations. The level of competence will depend on the depth of inspection required so, if say, crane inspections under LOLER were required, accreditable experience in the design, metalurgy, weld failure mechanisms, fatigue, creep stress etc would be necessary. Though the basics of this is also required for examining a lifting eye, the defects are usually much easier to see or if in doubt, a crack detection spray can be used to detect any failure sites. If none of this learning has been accumulated, a person may not understand what to look for or even recognise a failure in the making, therefore failing the competence test. What is needed, is the ability to reach the basic engineering examination level of competence and a restriction on the work equipment to be examined until further learning can be verified and the experience validated by an independent. Someone's life may depend on the quality of the examination. Routine condition checks can be done at regualr intervals based on a designed schedule (i.e. one that states what to look for exactly on that piece of work equipment and that could be done after a basic course. Similarly, basic lift plan/lifting/slinging/rigging competence can be had after short courses but all need to be taken in elements to ensure that experience can be built up. It does seem like your man has got plenty of that type of experience and should have little difficulty in determining his 'boundaries of competence' after a discussion with a professional LOLER instructor. He then needs to ensure it all can be validated and be within a reasonable time-frame. Regards, George