Safety Passport Schemes by Frank Cooper MIOSH RSP

Safety Passport schemes under various guises have been around since the mid-80’s. Some have been successful and still exist whilst others have long since disappeared.

Most of these passports were aimed at contractors and were designed to demonstrate an acceptable level of health and safety knowledge associated with the workforce. Many companies have insisted that for contractor works all contractors’ employees on their sites must hold a relevant safety passport.

But what kind of passport? Issued by whom? Exactly how many different kinds are there and what is their status?

A good starting point is the review that the HSE undertook in 2003 and which can be viewed at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/hsl_pdf/2003/hsl03-10.pdf
This review (although dated) covers the many types of passports that were available in the UK and Europe at that time. The HSE review shows in its appendix a list of passport providers and their associated industries as well as stating for how long the passports are valid for.

The HSE also has a free guidance leaflet describing passport schemes at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg381.pdf and although the HSE and Environmental bodies do not endorse any particular scheme, the leaflet does provide some sound advice on schemes in general and the suggested content of the associated training.

There is not room here to explore all of the existing schemes but two of the main ones are worthy of mention. First of all there is the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (usually known as the CSCS scheme) that is aimed at construction industry operatives. Details of this scheme can be found at: http://www.cscs.uk.com/ Here nine different versions of the passport card are available and full details of these and the scheme in general is available in the scheme booklet that can be viewed by navigating on the site.

One other major scheme is the one run by the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (the ECITB) and is the Client –Contractor National Safety Group scheme (usually known as the CCNSG scheme). This scheme is aimed at operatives who work in the power generation, chemical, mining and petro-chemical industries.

Details of this scheme can be found at: http://www.ecitb.org.uk/learning_&_development/adult_learning/safety_passport.cfm
Both of the above schemes involve employee training and accreditation and each of the sites offer details of approved training providers.

For those of you that remember IOSH being participants in such a scheme may be interested to know that they withdrew their involvement in September 2004 (this was the IOSH-SPA scheme) – see the official letter at: http://www.iosh.co.uk/index.cfm?go=news.item&id=459
By using a search engine and typing in Safety Passport you can obtain details of many of the other schemes. However, I warn you, most of the sites belong to training providers and there are a lot of them to work your way through!

Happy surfing,

Frank Cooper MIOSH RSP