Appointing a competent person for health and safety is a legal requirement. But understanding what that person should actually be doing once appointed is where many businesses have gaps.
Most employers now know they are required to appoint a competent person for health and safety under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. What is less well understood is what that person should actually be doing once appointed, and how to tell whether the arrangement is genuinely working.
This article focuses on the practical reality of the role: the day-to-day responsibilities, the situations where a competent person adds the most value, and the signs that suggest your current arrangement may not be sufficient.
If you are still at the stage of deciding whether you need external support, our earlier article on whether you need to appoint a competent person covers that ground in more detail.
The Difference Between Having One and Having an Effective One
Many businesses can point to a name on a document and confirm they have a competent person in place. Fewer can say with confidence that person is actively engaged with their health and safety arrangements on a regular basis.
The competent person role is not a one-time appointment. It requires ongoing input: reviewing how risks are being managed, keeping documentation current, responding to changes in the business or legislation, and being available when something unexpected happens. A name on a form with no active involvement is unlikely to satisfy an HSE inspector, and more importantly, it is unlikely to prevent incidents.
Risk Assessment: Beyond the Initial Document
Writing a risk assessment is one thing. Keeping it useful is another.
A competent person should ensure that risk assessments reflect the actual work being carried out, and that they are reviewed when circumstances change. That means when new equipment is introduced, when processes are altered, when staff turn over in higher-risk roles, or when an incident or near-miss occurs.
In practice this involves regular review cycles, not simply filing the original document and revisiting it annually as a formality. Where the business operates across multiple sites or carries out varied activities, this becomes considerably more demanding, and the competent person needs to have a working understanding of each environment.
Health & Safety Documentation That Actually Holds Up
There is a significant difference between documentation that exists and documentation that would hold up under scrutiny. A competent person is responsible for making sure your paperwork falls into the second category.
This covers health and safety policies, safe working procedures, Construction Phase Plans where CDM applies, emergency response plans, RIDDOR records, and training logs. Each of these needs to be accurate, current and proportionate to the risks your business actually faces.
A common issue is documentation prepared at the start of a project or business operation that is never meaningfully updated. By the time something goes wrong, the records bear little resemblance to how the work is actually being done. The competent person’s job is to prevent that gap from opening up.
Keeping Pace with Legislation
UK health and safety law changes. Regulations are updated, new HSE guidance is issued, and significant cases shift expectations around what constitutes reasonable precaution in particular industries.
A competent person is responsible for monitoring these changes and advising the business on their implications. This does not require a legal background, but it does require someone who is actively engaged with the health and safety landscape, not simply applying knowledge that was current several years ago.
For businesses in higher-risk sectors such as construction, warehousing or manufacturing, the regulatory environment can move quickly. Missing a relevant change in guidance is not a defence if something goes wrong.
Site Visits and Workplace Observation
A competent person who never visits the workplace is limited in what they can contribute. For businesses with physical operations, regular site attendance is a core part of the role.
This means walking the site or workplace, identifying hazards that may not be apparent from documentation alone, speaking with workers and supervisors, and providing feedback that is grounded in what is actually happening rather than what the paperwork suggests should be happening.
It is often during these visits that the most useful work gets done: a piece of equipment being used in a way it was not designed for, an access route that has become a trip hazard, or a working practice that has drifted from the agreed method statement. A competent person who is present regularly is far more likely to catch these things early.
Supporting HSE Inspections and Investigations
If the HSE visits your premises, either as part of a routine inspection programme or following an incident, the competent person has a central role in managing the process.
That means knowing what records to produce, understanding what the inspector is likely to be looking for, and being able to demonstrate that the business has a functioning health and safety management system rather than a collection of disconnected documents.
Where an incident leads to a formal investigation, the quality of your records and the robustness of your risk management arrangements will be scrutinised in detail. A competent person who has been actively engaged throughout the year provides a much stronger foundation than one who is only called upon when things go wrong.
Training, Inductions and Toolbox Talks
Keeping your workforce informed about safe working practices is not a one-off exercise. A competent person should be involved in identifying what training is required, ensuring it is delivered appropriately, and maintaining records that demonstrate compliance.
For construction businesses, this includes site inductions for new starters and subcontractors, toolbox talks on specific topics, and ensuring that any required certification (such as CSCS cards or SMSTS/SSSTS qualifications) is in place and current.
For other sectors the specific requirements will differ, but the principle is the same: a competent person helps the business understand what its workforce needs to know and ensures that knowledge reaches the right people.
What Good Looks Like
An effective competent person arrangement typically involves regular scheduled contact, clear communication when issues are identified, proactive advice rather than reactive responses, and documentation that is genuinely reflective of the business’s activities.
For businesses that appoint an external consultant to fulfil this role, it is reasonable to expect a defined scope of engagement, agreed visit frequency, access to advice between visits, and a consultant who knows your business well enough to give relevant, specific guidance rather than generic recommendations.
MAST Safety provides an external competent person service for businesses across London and the South East, working across construction, manufacturing, warehousing and other sectors. If you would like to understand how we approach the role in practice, we are happy to talk through your specific situation.
