The HSE are very clear that any DSEAR assessment will only be seen as suitable & sufficient if it is undertaken by persons with suitable competence (qualifications, knowledge, experience and awareness of the type of business). Failure to ensure suitable checks are made on whom is to be carrying out the assessment can be very costly indeed.
As experts in the field we often come across businesses who have tried to find the least cost provider, only to find the assessments are not up to the standard required by the HSE, or even their Insurers. This means having to have the assessment done again; normally at additional costs. Even worse is when something goes badly wrong and somebody or multiple persons get hurt. This can only result in a lot of questions on why was this allowed to happen and why were the risks not identified and suitably controlled. All of this will see the business end up in court with a large fine and bad publicity.
DSEAR RA Ltd are asked to quote to over 300 businesses per year, and as part of the process we ensure we follow up all quotes. At times we are told that the business has gone to another supplier which is not a problem. However, when that supplier is for example a small fuel supplier or a generic H&S consultancy, this does raise alarm bells about what risks the assessors are highly likely to miss in their assessment.
We understand that DSEAR may seem an expensive purchase but given the potential consequences; we would highly recommend only using a company with the necessary competence (and not necessarily the cheapest).
