Posted By Ian Mitchell Hiya Mark, With the utmost respect intended, if you are carrying out the audit yourself, but need to ask for the basics, are you the right person to be carrying out the audit in the first instance?? Cheers, Ian M...

Posted By Dave Wilson could also try and get a 5* BSC award while at it Mark! Thought you may already have one of these if you look hard enough. or try CITB Manual

Posted By Dave Wilson Consultants!!!!

Posted By Tim Well done Dave; Good to see somebody showing support for consultants. Although three cheers is customary not the four, represented by your exclamation marks. Keep up the good work. Tim ;-)

Posted By Dave McIness David G.C. I'm sure Dave W will be pleased with your link! Not only is the page a direct rip-off from the HSE publication HSG150, it is also apparently sponsored by another firm of H&S Consultants - I wonder if the HSE know that their work is 1. having its copyright infringed in this way; 2. having its work 'sponsored' by a H&S consultant.

Posted By Merv Newman Bob, probably fair comment, but a bit tricky all the same. I think I spend about half my working life in learning. This forum and others, site links, journals, chatting with others in the job. I have a library of files, forms and procedures given quite freely to me by H&S people over the years. When, eventually it comes to putting all that into practice then the outcome is usually a synthesis of all that has gone before. Who or where I gleaned a specific bit of information is often impossible to tell. It's just there when you need it (objective of CPD after all) So, if I need to work up a new construction audit check list, (haven't done construction audits for years) I will need to do a bit of research on legislation, acop, ssow etc, ask a few questions and confirm with my peers that I have got it right. Maybe half-a-dozen sources who I will not normally cite. Is this plagiarism or deep research ? I will freely admit that I am not a "construction person" More SMS and BBS. But I will contend that this does not exclude me from being "competent" in what I could offer to the construction industry. And as I've got the welly-boots (with toe-caps), the hard hat and the hi-vis vest. I must be, at least visually, competent. Discuss any or all of the above points. Merv

Posted By Gary IMD(UK) Copyright or Incompetent people? Mmm, what is the biggest concern? I'll have to sleep on that one! We always have to re-design risk assessment forms don't we, 'just so that they look a little bit different'... Re-inventing the wheel perhaps? This profession is sounding more and more like politicians! Nit-picking about issues without getting out there at the sharp end, giving good, sound advice and making people and places safer! Procrastination... the greatest evil?!!! Take care!

Posted By Gary IMD(UK) See, Bob, that's good advice too! Take care!

Posted By Merv Newman Bob, your right. It's one of the subconscious things you sort of notice when auditing. Most people develop a personal style with preferred fonts, sizes, layouts and colours. Where something doesn't match you can ask a few questions to test depth of knowledge. And I don't think this is a trivial subject. I know I spent a lot of the time in my early years in the job trying to present a good face to the annual auditors. Grabbing ideas and procedures from my colleagues and presenting them as "this is what we do here". Cheating at the time, maybe. But eventually that really became "what we do here" Must have worked. Well, actually, it did work. They made me one of the auditors. Oh, nostalgia. She ain't what she used to be. (look it up) Merv