edp Safety Systems
total Management of Health and Safety
for every organisation
health, safety and environment consultants
Service Overview
Competent Contractors Audit
Call us on: 01744 766000
or fax on: 01744 766025
or email on:
enquiries@edp-uk.com.
Essential Services
H+S Services:
- Health and Safety Audit
- General Risk Assessment
- Specific Risk Assessment
- Fire Risk Assessment
- Manual Handling Risk Assessment
- COSHH Risk Assessment
- Display Screen Equipment Assessment
- Noise Risk Assessment
- Asbestos Survey (Type II)
- Competent Contractors Audit
- Access Consultancy
- Portable Appliance Testing
Overview
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Act requires that a site occupier must ensure that any contractors who are brought on site are competent to carry out the work for which they are being employed.
Essentially, the responsibility amounts to checking that every contactor is complying with health and safety legal requirements, including for example:
- Safety Policy
- Appropriate standard of information in regard to hazards and risks associated with the work and the implementation of suitable controls to properly manage them
- Records to demonstrate that all plant and equipment is subject to a proper Maintenance and Control regime
- A programme of Induction Safety Training for temporary employees, workers and subcontractors.
- Effective arrangements for supervision of staff, depending on the complexity of the work and the skills required to carry it out
- Evidence of previous health and safety performance
Objectives
The aim of a Competent Contractors Audit is to ensure that all work on the site or carried out on behalf of the organisation complies with the requirements of health and safety legislation.
In addition, the organisation needs to be able to demonstrate by appropriate documentary evidence that the checks have been carried out and the results are satisfactory and up to date.
Methodology
As part of the Audit, all current contractors (which might include, for example, cleaning, maintenance, security, wellbeing) are presented with a comprehensive questionnaire that is designed to assess their level of health and safety compliance.
The Auditor then reviews the evidence returned by each of the contractors and requests and indicates any short-comings or lapses that need to be addressed. In cases of serious failures or where a contractor appears to be unwilling or unable to correct any failings, the auditor will recommend that their employment be terminated.
Information from contractors is assembled to form a comprehensive record of the Audit for future reference.
The Audit needs to be undertaken as part of the requirements of any new contractors and it needs to be repeated at agreed intervals for ongoing contracts.
Duration
The time required to complete an Audit can vary from a couple of days to a number of weeks, depending on such factors as:
- Number of contractors employed
- Nature of work for which they are employed
- Level of cooperation of contractors
- Issues revealed by the initial questionnaire