Throughout various West Australian regulations, a competent person is called up. Certain tasks must be completed and signed off by a competent person, however very few people stop to think… Exactly who is a competent person?
Simply put, a competent person is somebody who has the experience and skills to competently carry out the task in question. The experience and skills can have been acquired through any means. Education, experience, and training are all suitable to qualify somebody as a competent person as long as they have provided the person with the ability to complete the task.
In the following situations, there are more specific requirements:
Design Verifications
The person completing a design verification must have not only the skills and competence, but they are also required to have both qualifications and experience demonstrating their competence.
Plant Registrations
Any person inspecting an item of plant for the purposes of registration must have qualifications in an engineering discipline that is relevant to the item of plant or considerable knowledge of the technical standards that govern that item of plant.
Crane inspections
Any person who inspects a mobile crane, tower crane, or amusement device must either be determined by the relevant WHS regulator as competent or have appropriate skills qualifications and experience that deems them as a competent person. If the crane resides in a jurisdiction that calls for the registration of professional engineers, the person must be registered.
As you can see it’s not always easy to determine who is, and who isn’t a competent person for any given task. Rapallo can assist with Design Verifications, Plant Registrations, and Crane inspections, with our team of qualified competent people.
