| NHSS 8 and Highway Electrical Registration Scheme |
Competency in highway electrical works
The competency of contractors and their employees working in the highway electrical industry has a direct bearing on the health and safety of people working in the industry. The construction industry, of which we are a segment, has one of the poorest health and safety records of all industries in the UK.
The highway electrical sector has embraced the need to address the H&S record and under the leadership of the Highways Agency has established the National Highway Sector Scheme.
National
Highway Sector Schemes are quality management schemes that have been
developed, as a partnership, by all sides of the highway industry to
interpret ISO 9001 as it applies to a particular highway activity for
industry within the United Kingdom. These schemes cover the full range of
equipment and services required on the highway and for those that are
installation and maintenance services, there is a strong element of
competency.
Each scheme has a technical advisory committee made up of stakeholders within the industry to provide advice to UKAS, the United Kingdom Accreditation Service. The technical advisory committee interprets ISO9001 in relation to the requirements of their particular activity and comes to a consensus on the minimum levels of workmanship, services, products, testing, and the training & competency of operatives, needed to meet specification requirements as well as auditor qualification. The details are contained in the individual sector scheme documents.
The Highway Electrical Sector Scheme stakeholders include ASLEC, ARTSM, the Department for Transport, the Highways Agency and the Institution of Lighting Engineers. The scheme was formally launched on 21 October 2004 at Highlex 2004, the highway electrical industry’s annual exhibition and conference.
Highway Electrical Registration Scheme
The Sector Scheme for highway electrical works requires that employees working in the highway electrical industry shall be assessed for competence by their employers and be issued by them with a certificate that identifies the employee as an Authorised Person allowed to carry out work appropriate to the level of competence against which they have been assessed.
In order to ensure rigour in this process, the Sector Scheme requires that each Authorised Person shall be placed on a Register by their employer under this Scheme. As part of the process, the Scheme requires that a Technical Audit is carried out at intervals no greater than every two years to ensure the validity of the assessment process carried out by Registered Organisations in the issuing of their Authorisation to Work certificates.