Must an employer in the United Kingdom appoint a safety professional or an occupational physician?

No specific safety professional or occupational physician is required by UK law. Every employer must appoint one or more competent persons to help it meet its health and safety duties (Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 7), but the law sets no qualification, headcount or hazard-class threshold. A doctor must be involved only where particular regulations require medical surveillance.

Short answer

• Competent person: mandatory for every employer in Great Britain; can be the owner, an employee or an outside adviser, or a combination.
• In-house first: if a competent person exists among the employer's own staff, that person must be appointed in preference to an outsider (regulation 7(8)).
• No size threshold: the number of competent persons, their time and their means must be adequate for the size of the business and its risks (regulation 7(3)).
• No general duty to employ an occupational physician or nurse. A "relevant doctor" (a doctor appointed by HSE, called an appointed doctor, or an employment medical adviser) is required for specified medical surveillance, for example licensable asbestos work, lead, ionising radiation and the COSHH Schedule 6 processes.
• First aid: every employer must provide adequate first-aid equipment and suitable trained persons, or an appointed person where that is enough (First-Aid Regulations 1981).
• Self-employed people and partnerships with the necessary competence among themselves do not need to appoint someone else.

What "competent" means in UK law

Regulation 7(5) of MHSWR defines a competent person as someone with sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to assist properly. HSE explains that it is not usually essential for the competent person to hold formal qualifications and that many small, low-risk businesses can manage with the owner and their workers. Larger, complex or high-risk organisations often need specialist help, but appointing a consultant does not transfer the legal duty, which stays with the employer.

The employer must also give an outside competent person the information needed to do the job, including information on fixed-term and agency workers (regulation 7(4)), and must make sure that several appointees co-operate. Health and safety qualifications from professional bodies are widely used in practice to demonstrate competence, but the regulations do not name any of them.

When a doctor or occupational health service is needed

Occupational health support is good practice and helps with fitness for work, return to work and reasonable adjustments, but it becomes a legal requirement only through specific rules:

HSE advises that health surveillance schemes should usually be set up with input from a competent occupational health professional, which in practice means an occupational health nurse or doctor.

How this differs from the EU and Türkiye

The EU Framework Directive 89/391/EEC requires employers to designate workers or use competent external services, and member states set the detail, so the rules differ between EU countries. Türkiye goes further: under Law No. 6331, Article 6, the employer must assign an OSH specialist (iş güvenliği uzmanı) and a workplace physician (işyeri hekimi), and other health personnel in very hazardous workplaces with ten or more workers, either from its own staff or by contracting a joint health and safety unit (ortak sağlık ve güvenlik birimi, OSGB). The UK relies on the general competence test instead.

Common mistakes

• Thinking a consultant takes over the legal duty. The employer remains responsible.
• Ignoring in-house competence. Where a suitable employee exists, regulation 7(8) requires that person to be preferred.
• Assuming health surveillance can be done by anyone. Medical surveillance under asbestos, lead, radiation and COSHH Schedule 6 rules needs a doctor who meets the regulations.

Related on excodex

• Occupational safety and health in United Kingdom: law, authorities and employer duties
• Are pre-employment and periodic medical examinations required for workers in the United Kingdom?
• OSH law compared: appointments, committees and reporting deadlines
• Workplace physician and health personnel in Türkiye

Standards and further reading

• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 7: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/3242/regulation/7
• HSE, Appoint a competent person: https://www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/gettinghelp/index.htm
• HSE, Health surveillance overview: https://www.hse.gov.uk/health-surveillance/overview.htm
• Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, regulation 22: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/632/regulation/22
• COSHH 2002, regulation 11: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2677/regulation/11
• Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, regulation 3: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1981/917/regulation/3

This article is general occupational safety and health information prepared by the excodex editorial team. It does not replace the applicable legislation, standards, manufacturers' instructions or the assessment of a competent OSH professional or occupational physician.