Posted By Allan St.John Holt Helping other companies is a good thing to do. It's a variant on what we do in this forum. Whether it's a WISE thing to do could be something else, depending on the situation. If you accept a consideration - not necessarily but often money - for doing so, then you could be held liable for the quality or adequacy of your advice and training. The test really is, if something happens either as a result of advice you've given, or which is not covered by that advice and arguably should have been, what is the 'other company' going to do about it? In fact that decision will be made by their insurers if the sum involved is significant. This is why professional indemnity insurance is a good idea if there is any likelihood of one of the above happening. From a criminal (HASWA) point of view at its simplest, you could be considered as putting people at risk by your activities if you have been judged to have given wrong or incomplete advice. But this last is somewhat hypothetical, as I don't believe it would be in the public interest to pillory a Good Samaritan. There is a school of though not discouraged by some [reference removed] which thinks that taking even partial or poor quality advice is better than doing nothing at all. On the other hand, really incompetent advice (of which I have seen a few cases) can be dangerous. I have heard and seen written evidence of advice being given which was of the quality of 'Find the gas leak by holding a match nearby and waiting for the flame to wobble in the draught'.... Happy New Year, Allan

Posted By Brian J Sutherland In addition to concurring with Allan's response I recall a case were a company employed a h&s consultant to advise on the methodology concerning the demolition of a structure. The manner in which this work was undertaken resulted in the exposure of the company's employees and members of the public to asbestos fibres. In this instance the HSE not only prosecuted the company but also the "consultant" as it was deemed he had given incompetent advice. This was challenged unsuccessfully in court by the consultant and he was fined £16k.