Working at Height Competence
This Operational Circular issued to HSE officers provides advice to visiting staff (HSE & LA) on the interpretation and enforcement of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (WAHR) in respect of Competence.
Appendix 8
Definition of Competence
APPENDIX 8
COMPETENCE
1 Competence is not defined in the Regulations.
2 Approximately 3 million people work at height in the UK. Some are regarded as specialists who use equipment such as MEWPs, personal fall protection systems or are involved with erecting temporary edge protection, scaffolding, tower scaffolds, nets etc. Others regularly work at height utilising equipment set up by others. For such people, most if not all of the requirements listed in para 5 and 6 will be required.
3 However, it is recognised that for a lot of people work at height will be incidental to their main job eg librarians using a kick stool to retrieve books or a shop assistant retrieving stock using a stepladder. For such simple tasks only some of the elements listed in para 5 and 6 will be relevant. In its simplest form, competence for these incidental, occasional or
low risk tasks, should involve a person having,
(1) an awareness of the risks
(2) appropriate access equipment available
(3) knowledge of how to use the access equipment safely
(4) knowledge of how to spot defects in the equipment
(5) knowledge of who to speak to if they have any concerns regarding
to (d).
4 Bearing in mind the proportionality issues discussed in paras 2 and 3 above, the
following basic definition can be used.
5 A competent person is a person who can demonstrate that they have sufficient professional or technical training, knowledge, actual experience, and authority to enable them to,
(1) carry out their assigned duties at the level of responsibility allocated to them,
(2) understand any potential hazards related to the work (or equipment) under consideration,
(3) detect any technical defects or omissions in that work (or equipment),
recognise any implications for health and safety caused by those defects or
omissions, and be able to specify a remedial action to mitigate those
implications. ‘authority’ means delegated authority to the individual by their employer to carry out a certain function or duty.
6 The wording of the basic definition in para 5 has been adopted and included in a number of British Standards and industry documents. The definition may be used in practice by stating what it implies for any given situation or activity.
The following is an example of its application.
ACWAHT (Advisory Committee for Work at Height Training) have agreed that for an individual to be “competent to work at height” the definition given above implies the following.
(1) To know and understand the specific legal duties under the Work at Height
Regulations which apply to them as an individual.
(2) To understand who controls their activity and the lines of communication to use.
(3) To understand the principles of fall protection that the Work at Height
Regulations requires to be used.
(4) To be able to recognise safe and unsafe situations/activities.
(5) To understand how to deal with the hazards associated with the task
allocated to them.
(6) To have adequate training in the correct use and limitations of any work
equipment allocated to them for the task.
(7) To understand the need for and the ability to check the adequacy of the
safety equipment allocated to them.
(8) If that equipment has been issued to them on a personal basis an
understanding of the correct procedure for storage and maintenance and
inspection.
(9) To understand safe procedures of work and be able to state the correct
procedure for the task, the emergency (including rescue) procedures in place
for the work and their role in it.
(10) To know the procedure for reporting any defects, hazards or unsafe
procedures they detect.
Note: Similar industry groups are working currently to define the attributes that the basic definition implies for their activities. Used in this way, HSE believes that competence for any given task/role can be assessed by simple questions and answers and does not require detailed knowledge of the individual, their background, training or experience