Competent Persons, CPD and Legal Standing.

I am something of an autodidact, a self taught person, and therefore Continuing Professional Development seems to me like the most natural thing in the world for an engineer to be doing. Well, short of drinking coffee, arguing with one another and looking at the ceilings of restaurants rather than at our food.

The 29th of April 2025 saw an update to BS5839-1, and within Part 3 of Section 1 under terms and definitions we now have 3.13 competent person, defined as a person, suitably trained and qualified by knowledge and practical experience, and provided with the necessary instructions, to enable the required task(s) to be carried out correctly. Lovely, isn’t it? There’s a temptation to stick a checkbox in place of each of those commas, and have operatives refer to it before attempting what they’re doing. Perhaps such an aide memoir might have aided in avoiding the event that made a few of us considered getting a green heart tattoo. This definition already existed, and has been lifted from BS9991:2024 3.4, tinkered with a little and has been adorned with a note; maintenance of competence is likely to require continuing professional development (CPD). So, for those of you at the back, what is CPD, and what is it’s relationship with Competence?

The CPD Certification Service defines it as a commitment to ongoing lifelong learning. It involves learning experiences that help professionals develop and improve their practice, including building on strengths and addressing capability gaps. The sort of dirty joke I make about it is that I like to finds holes in my knowledge that I can stuff things into, for fun. But what we’re after is that we engineers keep our pencils sharp; its one thing to boast that you’ve been doing your thing ‘man and boy, 25 years at the coalface, since you lot were in nappies’ etc etc, but if the last time you were in a classroom or picked up a book was when you were 18 years old and you are presently 43, I might worry about what you have actually been doing for the last 25 years, particularly if you didn’t even truly grasp the idea of what you were doing then; I can certainly attest to having been both 18 years old and not in full grasp of the facts.

So, what does it look like?

Funnily enough, the way I record my CPD with the IET is mirrored exactly in how my 6 year old records her learning in year one of school. Its pretty straight forward; What did you do, what was involved, and have you reflected on it? So for example;

• Activity:

  • YouTube video titled How To Fry an Egg

• Description:

  • A start to finish tutorial involving egg breaking, pan heating and serving techniques

• Reflection:

  • I realised that my eggs were all over done because I was leaving the pan hot throughout, where as I now realise a better technique would be to drop the temperature halfway through and steam the top of the egg by adding a lid.

So, why do we do it? In short, because we have a duty of care, particularly those of us in life safety, and because we want to best deliver value to our customers. And also, why not strive to better ourselves?

But, we should also really be considering the relationship between our actions and our legal standing should the wheels ever fall off. Lets start with our trusty old steed the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989;

• Regulation 29, Defence.

  • In any proceedings for an offence consisting of a contravention of [regulations] it shall be a defence for any person to prove that he [read they] took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of that offence.

  • Sounds like having records stretching back all those 25 years showing that you spent at least 30 hours a year reading manuals and guidance, having discussions and attending seminars, when you’re dragged up in front of the man [person] in the wig and his [their] mate, the expert witness might be handy.

We might have to take a moment here to discuss the word ‘regulations’. As ever, the English language is doing its thing [being five other languages wandering around in a trench coat having gained enough sentience to try and outwit the very populace that keeps it alive], so its very important that we know our onions. The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 are statutory, and as such have been passed by government and/or legislative bodies and as such are tied in with actual law, whereas the IET Wiring Regulations BS7671:2018+A3:2024, the big [presently] brown book [and its tuck in printouts] is non-statutory, and is considered guidance. But, can we do whatever we like when it comes to guidance? Can guidance simply be ignored? I mean, it is simply compiled by the hitherto experts in that particular subject, reconsidered every five years based upon learned experience, industrial advancement or in response to a genuine human tragedy. But of course it is Friday afternoon, the sun is over the yard arm, and we know better.

So, to avoid confusion lets have a look at the Daddy that is The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and the role of the guidance you are being accused of ignoring because someone has had a bolt or died of smoke inhalation;

• Section 17 use of approved codes of practice in criminal proceedings

  • (1) A failure on the part of any person to observe any provision of an approved code of practice shall not of itself render him [read they] liable to any civil or criminal proceedings, but where in any criminal proceedings a party is alleged to have committed an offence by reason of a contravention of any requirement or prohibition imposed by or under any such provision as is mentioned in section 16(1) being a provision that there was an approved code of practice at the time of the alleged contravention, the following subsection shall have effect with respect to that code in relation to those proceedings.

  • (2) Any provision of the code of practice which appears to the court to be relevant to the requirement or prohibition to have been contravened shall be admissible in evidence in the proceedings; and if it is proved that there was at any materials time a failure to observe any provision of the code which appears to the court to be relevant to any matter which it is necessary for the prosecution to prove in order to establish a contravention of that requirement or prohibition, that matter shall be taken as proved unless the court is satisfied that the requirement or prohibition was in respect of that matter complied with otherwise than by way of observance of that provision of the code.

Or the muscular Uncle that is the Fire Safety Act 2005, that highlights all that is required by a Responsible Person, which you might assume is simply the owners of or those in charge of a building or such, but it also takes a look at Dutyholders (2.18) that defines them as having the same duties as Responsible Persons, the following is taken from 2.19 as an example;

• contractors who maintain fire protection systems and equipment (such as fire extinguishers, emergency lighting and fire alarm systems). In this case, they only have duties, under the Fire Safety Order, in relation to maintenance of systems and equipment they are contracted to maintain.

• Contractors whose work may affect other fire safety elements of the building (ie where installing cables or pipes through compartmentation)

• external consultants contracted to carry out fire risk assessments, as their contract relates to the safety of the premises.

So what we’re saying is, compliance with British Standards might be there to help you meet the guidance of the Approved Documents which are there to help you meet in part the guidance of EAWR 1989 it is all ultimately leading up to helping you meet the requirements of acts of parliament which are law, against which you shall be tried. How do we prove our duty of care? Lets look our handy checklist;

• Are we;

  • suitably trained and qualified by

    • knowledge?

    • practical experience?

  • provided with

    • the necessary instructions, to enable the required task(s) to be carried out correctly?

• And if I may, could I also add;

  • Do I want to

    • Do a good job?

    • Be better today than I was yesterday?

  • Am I

    • the right person to be executing this task?

There is a cultural irony at play here, akin to the Dunning-Kruger effect, in that the hearts and minds of those we need to convince ain’t out here reading blogs, or else we wouldn’t have a problem. And that’s not beginning to touch on the concerning sociopathy of those that literally do not care if people get hurt [Matt shudders existentially]. So, it is up to us nerds to mobilise and have a quiet word, here or there, with our right honourable colleagues out there in the field.

Cultural change is slow, attentions spans are dwindling. But, an avalanche is but a collection of little bits of snow, so maybe a quiet word here, a grain of shame there, and as a village, we’ll get there. In the short term though, make sure you’re recording your CPD, in case you meet the person in the wig and their mate.

Wireless Fire Alarm Systems

Wireless fire alarm systems are a great way of quickly improving your fire safety compliance with minimal interruption; a single installer could install a system of up to 50 devices in a day!

These types of systems are ideal for finished buildings as a retrofit solution or within buildings that hard wiring is unsuitable, for instance in heritage or buildings of architectural buildings that need to be preserved.

At SEFE we are well versed with most wireless fire alarm manufacturers on the market, such as but not limited to EMS Firecell, EMS Smartcell, Apollo Reach, Hyfire Taurus, Hochiki EKHO and Zerio Plus by Electro Detectors. Based in East Sussex, we are well placed in install in Kent, London, West Sussex and Surrey.

Get in touch for a free estimate.

Fire Alarm Servicing & Honest Reporting

Having high standards can make one unpopular. AT SEFE we take great pride in attention to detail and thoroughness. But, it does mean that frequently we run into a familiar situation; we’re the first to have actually paid attention in a while. And it isn’t fair for the customer, to have the figurative rug pulled from under them when suddenly issues that hadn’t been known to exist are suddenly revealed. And these issues might bring with them additional cost, like the least popular relative bringing a new obnoxious partner to a family do.

But, we do it for good reason. A little while ago I serviced the fire detection and alarm system at a hotel, and the wiring wasn’t properly installed. In essence, it was supposed to be a loop, the cabling intended to leave the control panel, go around the whole system and return to the panel, the idea being that this gives contingency; a break in the cable would mean that the two halves are still both connected to the panel. But, it left the panel and ended in the fabric of the building somewhere, and some nefarious individual had put little links within the panel, tricking the machine into thinking the wiring was correct. I reported as such and recommended correcting the wiring, and was readily dismissed by the owner.

And then, within weeks, a drunken hotel guest ripped down what happen to be the second point in the sixty point system, broke the cabling, and suddenly the system had fifty eight devices missing. The hotel was immediately down to 3% of its coverage.

So, whilst it might seem as though we’re only delivering bad news, we’re just trying to get ahead of the unfortunate occurring.

If you would like us to deliver you some bad news (which is just good news viewed in the wrong light, when it comes to life safety and compliance), book a fire alarm service and inspection with us. We cover East Sussex, Kent and London.

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.