Do I Need a Health and Safety Consultant? The Competent Person Rule Explained

“Do I actually need a health and safety consultant, or can I handle it myself?” It is one of the most common questions small and medium businesses ask, and the honest answer is that it depends on what the law calls competence. This guide explains the legal requirement behind the question, when you genuinely need outside help, and how to appoint the right person.

The legal starting point: the competent person

Under regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, every employer must appoint one or more competent persons to help them meet their health and safety legal duties. This is not optional and there is no size exemption. A business with two employees needs a competent person just as much as one with two hundred.

Here is the part that trips people up. That competent person does not have to be an outside consultant. The Regulations say you should look within your own business first. In a small company the competent person is very often a director or the owner themselves, provided they have the knowledge and experience to do the job. You only need to bring in external help where there is nobody inside the business with the competence to handle what is needed. So the law does not force you to hire a consultant. What it requires is that competent advice is available to you, whether that comes from inside the business or from outside it.

What does “competent” actually mean?

The Regulations describe competence in terms of having sufficient training, experience, knowledge and other qualities to properly assist with health and safety. It is deliberately not tied to a single qualification. In practice, competence is a mixture of relevant knowledge and hands-on experience of your particular risks, plus the good sense to recognise the limits of that knowledge and know when to call in a specialist.

For a low-risk office, a suitably trained manager, director or owner may well be competent to handle the basics. For a business with significant hazards such as construction, manufacturing, work at height or hazardous substances, the bar is considerably higher.

When you probably don’t need a consultant

If your business is low-risk, such as a typical office or shop, your activities are straightforward, and someone in your team has genuine health and safety knowledge, you may be perfectly compliant handling it internally. The HSE actively encourages this for simple, low-hazard workplaces and publishes free guidance to help, including its Managing health and safety resources and advice on appointing a competent person.

When you probably do need one

External help tends to become sensible, or necessary, when:

• Your work involves higher-risk activities (construction, machinery, hazardous substances, work at height, confined spaces);
• You have no one internally with the relevant competence;
• You need specific specialist assessments such as fire, asbestos, legionella, noise or DSEAR;
• You are bidding for contracts that require accreditation (such as SafeContractor, CHAS or ISO 45001);
• You have had an incident, an enforcement notice, or an HSE inspection;
• You simply do not have the time to keep on top of changing legislation.

Many businesses use a consultant not to replace internal responsibility, but to provide the competent-person backstop the law requires and to handle the specialist assessments a generalist manager cannot.

You still need a safety management system

Whether you handle things in-house or bring in a consultant, being compliant is more than a single document. You need a basic safety management system: a written health and safety policy (required in writing once you have five or more employees), suitable and sufficient risk assessments, practical control measures, and a way of reviewing them. Depending on the size and nature of your business you may also need training for staff, arrangements for consultation, records, and someone accountable for keeping it all current. A good adviser helps you build a system you actually own and understand, sized to your business, rather than a folder of paperwork you never look at. Proportionality is a legal principle in its own right: the effort should match the risk.

How to appoint the right person

Check their background and references, and make sure their experience matches your industry and risks. A consultant who is excellent in construction may not be the right fit for a care home or a laboratory. Look for relevant professional membership, such as membership of IOSH (the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health) or the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM), and for qualifications appropriate to the work, such as the NEBOSH General or Diploma qualifications and specialist certificates in the areas relevant to you. Membership and qualifications are useful markers, but the real test is relevant, demonstrable experience of risks like yours. Ask what they will deliver, how they will hand knowledge over to your team, and how they will keep you up to date.

Frequently asked questions

Is a health and safety consultant a legal requirement?

Not specifically. What is a legal requirement is appointing a competent person under regulation 7 of the Management Regulations. That person can be someone inside your business, including a director or the owner. A consultant is simply one way to meet the duty when you have no one competent internally.

Do I need a written health and safety policy?

If you employ five or more people, yes, you must have a written health and safety policy. Below five employees it is still good practice.

Can I just do it myself?

For a genuinely low-risk workplace, and with the right knowledge, yes. The law expects you to look to internal competence first and only bring in a consultant where that competence is not available.

Every listing on My Safety Consultant shows the consultant’s memberships and qualifications, so you can match them to your industry and risks.