Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Work Equipment
The Health and Safety Commission is a body of ten people, appointed by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions after consultation with bodies representing employers, employees, local authorities and others, as appropriate. One of the present members of the Commission has been appointed to represent the public interest. The Commission's aim is to protect the health, safety and welfare of people at work, and to safeguard the members of the public who may be exposed to risks from the way that work is carried out.
The Health and Safety Commission's job includes proposing new or updated laws and standards, conducting research, providing information and advice, and controlling explosives and other dangerous substances. The Commission is advised and assisted by the Health and Safety Executive.
The statement sets out the approach that the Health and Safety Commission will take to the formal use of conformity assessment schemes both directly and through intermediary bodies in promoting health and safety at work. It also covers the degree to which the Health and Safety Executive should become involved in developing schemes proposed by others.
The statement will be of interest to suppliers of conformity assessment services, and to manufacturers, importers and suppliers of goods and services important to health and safety.
The following is the full text of the statement:
1. This statement sets out the approach that the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) will take to the formal use of conformity assessment (CA) schemes both directly and through intermediary bodies, in promoting health and safety at work. It also covers the degree to which the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) should become involved in developing schemes proposed by others. It is aimed at any organisation or individual with an interest in CA.
2. It replaces the 1984 Commission Policy Statement on Approval or Certification of Plant or Articles for Use at Work.
3. CA is a range of techniques (testing, calibration, inspection and certification) used singly or in combination to examine a design, product, process, service or competence of an individual to determine whether it fulfils a defined specification. A description of CA and the factors which have contributed to its development are in Appendix 1.
4. A number of terms is used in a specific sense in this statement. These are accreditation, approval, certification, conformity, inspection, standard and test/testing. Definitions of these terms in the sense in which they are used in this statement are in Appendix 2.
5. This statement does not deal with:
(a) arrangements which may exist for self-certification or assessment against informal and unrecognised standards;
(b) education and training matters which are largely dealt with by educational institutions and may lead to a vocational or other qualification, e.g. National/Scottish Vocational Qualification;
(c) the role of the Electrical Equipment Certification Service which is part of HSE and which offers CA services.
6. The statement does not apply to HSE assessment of safety cases, or issuing of licenses under a licensing regime, e.g. the licensing of nuclear installations, where the judgment on health and safety covers only the specific situation and uses appropriately defined and selected criteria for the purpose. Nor does it apply to general HSE inspection activity, e.g. where an inspector will consider in broad terms the fulfilment of legislative requirements.
7. Regulatory authorities often required through legislation that products be approved by themselves before they could be used. Typically, these approvals schemes originated in areas of high hazard such as pressure systems, where a succession of incidents led to intensive inspection regimes; or in major utilities with their own specific hazards, like the railways. Often such schemes used CA techniques (such as testing).
8. Confidence in CA is strengthened if the CA body has been through the procedure of accreditation, in which an authoritative body gives formal recognition that a body or person is competent to carry out specific tasks. Within the UK the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) carries out this function. UKAS's relationship with Government is described at paragraph 6 of Appendix 1. When involved in the development of CA schemes involving third party certification, testing or inspection, HSC/E will look to UKAS to co-operate in the development of schemes. Normally HSC/E will want to use the standards developed for the purposes of accreditation (the BS EN 45000 series).
9. As a consequence of the development of CA, a substantial CA infrastructure has developed in the UK, often outside the regulatory environment. This offers a means for evaluation of conformity in a wide range of fields. HSC sees CA and the developing infrastructure as having the potential to contribute to the development and maintenance of suitable levels of health and safety at work. HSC will seek to use CA for this where it is the appropriate means of achieving this goal. The degree of involvement will be determined by the criteria in paragraphs 11 - 14 below.
10. HSC/E's future involvement in approval and CA activities will depend mainly on the nature and degree of risk involved. Generally HSC/E will only wish to use CA as a means of ensuring safety standards in situations presenting high risk. However there may be occasions when HSC/E will wish to develop a scheme of CA even though immediate risks are low - for example as a way of helping duty holders to fulfill responsibilities under health and safety legislation by providing a means of demonstrating that a product meets particular requirements or that a required degree of competence has been reached. There may in addition be occasions when specific requirements are placed on the regulatory authority by European legislation or international agreement.
11. The choice of direct approval by HSC/E or use of an external CA scheme will depend on specific circumstances:
(a) HSC will only consider requiring direct approval of the product, process, system or work activity which gives rise to the hazard if it is not possible to introduce CA schemes;
(b) where appropriate standards and assessment bodies exist which could be used to promote acceptable health and safety levels then HSC will, depending on the levels and nature of the risks involved, either :
advise Government that a CA regime should be established by regulation; or
take the lead in developing a voluntary scheme with other stakeholders .
12. In exceptional circumstances HSC may wish to propose the development of an approval or CA scheme designed to assure adequate levels of health and safety. This is likely only where relevant European directives neither exist nor are planned and some particular item or system or individual work activity either :
(a) gives rise to a special and continuing degree of concern on health or safety grounds (e.g. the CORGI scheme for certifying gas installers); or
(b) is at such an early stage of technological development that the very precise control afforded by CA is necessary (an example of a developing technology where a conformity assessment approach may be necessary is programmable control systems); or
(c) is an activity for which CA would be an appropriate mechanism for demonstrating competence (the CORGI scheme is an example of where this criterion also applies).
The case of (a) will include potentially catastrophic hazards giving rise to acute public or industrial concern and requiring a high degree of reassurance, or alternatively where a breakdown is likely to give rise to serious hazard or undermine the principles upon which a safe system is based, i.e. the item is of critical importance to safety.
13. Where other stakeholders propose the development of a CA regime on health and safety grounds, HSC/E will consider the degree to which it will become involved on the basis of the considerations set out above, its judgment of the health and safety benefits from developing a regime and the resources available. A current example is the proposal for a scheme to certify the competence of health and safety professionals from the British Safety Industry Federation.
14. Where CA schemes are being developed by others for trade (or other) purposes, the degree to which HSC/HSE will wish to participate in their development will depend on the importance of the health and safety aspects of the scheme to health and safety performance. An example of this is the proposal currently being considered for the accreditation of bodies to carry out in-service inspection of electrical installations.
15. Where HSC has introduced a direct approval scheme HSC will seek to replace it by independent assessment once an appropriate standards framework and/or bodies competent to assess conformity have developed.
The granting of a licence does not imply approval or accreditation by HSE of the licensee, its plant or processes. In such an application the term 'approval' has a different meaning to that used here in the general context of conformity assessment.
You can find out more by contacting
Jane Soloman
Telephone 0207-717-6170
Fax 0207-717-6680
Updated on the HSE website on 24 January 2003