2. Competent Person and Deputy

As explained in section 1 of this subject, business owners/directors are usually too busy to implement the health and safety system and appoint a Competent Person to fulfil this role. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines competence as: “the combination of training, skills, experience and knowledge that a person has and their ability to apply them to perform a task safely”. Depending upon the size of the organisation and the activities it carries out, the CP’s role varies hugely.

The CP of an office-based administrative business will have far less to do than the CP in an industrial or construction-based setting.

CP's nearly always have another role to fulfil (their “proper job”) and taking on the responsibility of managing safety in a potentially hazardous...

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An explanation of the responsibilities held by the Competent Person and the Deputy Competent Person.

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