We were recently asked to attend a site to provide a cost for a DSEAR assessment and to establish a potential relationship with a business that has sites across the UK. This business had recently purchased another business and had realised that it was lacking DSEAR assessments for the sites taken on.

When they looked through the records for previous assessments they came across what was understood to be an assessment but had fell vastly out of date and required a new assessment to be undertaken.

As a potential provider we were asked to explain the approach we would take and obviously the costs for the work to be completed. After looking around what was considered to be a good example site; our contact also asked if we would look through the previous assessment.

What was seen really failed to provide what could be considered to be a competent assessment. Of the 10 pages of the report six provided introductions, two appendices and only two pages actually constituted what could have been considered an assessment. For a business that uses large volumes of gases this really did not provide sufficient information to identify relevant risks and what controls would be needed to keep the business safe and legally compliant.

From the site visit the on-site technical team quickly realised there were gaps in what they needed to be doing and yet none of this was in the original assessment. This is not an uncommon failure; maybe this is because DSEAR is a very technical discipline. Clients often don’t know what they may need to do and therefore rely upon the consultant’s that they have employed knowledge; and if the consultant provides a poor quality report how would that business know?

If you need help with DSEAR then make sure that your provider has both the relevant technical knowledge and can provide reports that will keep your business safe and legally protected.