How should you select a DSEAR Risk Assessment consultant?
Finding competent and trustworthy DSEAR Risk Assessment consultants to work with can be a challenge for any operator.
Like any specialist technical service, this can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. As a team of engineers regularly carrying out DSEAR Risk Assessment for clients across industry, we can help you navigate this maze.
DSEAR Risk Assessments are required to comply with the DSEAR Regulations 2002. We have extensive information about DSEAR on our website, however as a brief overview as part of the assessment we are looking to:
- Understand and document the materials you have on site which may be flammable or combustible
- This can include liquids, vapours, gases and solids which could pose dust hazards.
- Understand and document the way you handle the materials, produce them or process them.
- Identify how the handling of these materials could create hazards for personnel from potential fires or explosions.
- Review the measures present on site to prevent these incidents from occurring.
- Identify any improvements that are required in order to comply with industry good practice or standards.
- Provide you with a comprehensive – but understandable – report summarising the findings of the DSEAR Risk Assessment. This should include clear recommendations, and the reasons for these recommendations.
- Be there to help follow up on any recommendations to help you understand them and complete them.
- Be available to update the DSEAR Risk Assessment whenever significant site changes occur, or on a periodic basis.
As part of the DSEAR Risk Assessment we also require to classify areas where special controls are required to protect the safety of workers. This is known as Hazardous Area Classification and requires extra skills and experience beyond the DSEAR Risk Assessment.
Key Questions to Ask
So with all these activities required, each requiring knowledge and expertise, how can you find a competent DSEAR Assessment Consultant? We would recommend finding out the following about anyone you may work with, and see how confident they are in their response:
- Have they had experience of similar sites carrying out DSEAR Risk Assessment?
- How much experience have they got carrying out DSEAR Risk Assessments?
- Can they provide a fixed price for this work, and how is it split between the DSEAR Risk Assessment and Hazardous Area Classification aspects of the job?
- Can they provide an example report? This means you can see the quality of the content, and to make sure it is understandable?
- What will be the cost impact if they identify the assessment requires more work than planned? And how will this be communicated?
- Will you receive Hazardous Area Classification drawings as one of the deliverables? Surprisingly this is often an exclusion on consultants quotes, and considered an add on service.
In Conclusion
If you can get clear answers to these questions, and feel confident that the supplier has the right skills, experience and quality of their work, then you might just have found a suitable DSEAR Risk Assessment consultant to work with.
OTECSA are always happy to help new and existing clients navigate challenges with DSEAR, and show you what “good” looks like when it comes to assessments.
Contact us today using the contact form on our website or contacting:
See our post on how much a DSEAR Risk Assessment should cost here.
We are always happy to have our proposals compared with other suppliers of DSEAR services and are certain due to our strength in numbers and experience we can be competitive on cost and delivery for any project.
This includes other suppliers including: DEKRA, Gexcon, TUV, ABB, Risktec, Arthian, Mabbett, Orbis Environmental, Sigma HSE and IDEA Integro Design Engineering Associates.