The Requirements for Legionella Risk Assessment and Expert
CODE contacted the Department of Health to clarify the requirements in HTM 01-04 for healthcare settings as there seemed to be some ambiguity. Here are the CODE questions and the DOH replies:

CODE: Is it a requirement of HTM 01-05 or a recommendation that Legionella Risk Assessment is performed by a third party only?

DOH: It is a recommendation only as L8 states that the person on whom the statutory duty falls is required to have access to competent help to assess the risks of exposure.... It also states..... Persons who carry out the assessment and
who draw up and implement precautionary measures should have such ability, experience, instruction, information, training and resources to enable them to carry out their tasks competently and safely. This means the duty holder can carry out the risk assessment if they meet those criteria however if anything should go wrong on site the first thing that would be looked at would be the risk assessment and people have been successfully prosecuted just for the lack of quality of the risk assessment. So it is up to the duty holder to decide.

CODE: Is it a requirement or a suggestion that a person Competent to carry out the said written scheme and risk assessment belongs to the Legionella Control Association. On page 67 of the document outlining the issue the document appears to state that this should be the case, however, on page 68, this is given as merely as an example?

DOH: L8 suggests that somebody from the LCA is used as a mark of competence. HTM 0105 states on page 67 the risk assessment should be carried out by a competent person. If the registered manager believes they are competent in the field
of legion ell a they are free to do a risk assessment but they would need to prove competence in some way. I would suggest that delegating the risk assessment to a "junior" member of staff would not be reasonable.

CODE: Is it a requirement that the Risk Assessment documents produced as a result carry the Legionella Control Association logo?

DOH: No.

CODE:. Is it a requirement for the said competent person to perform the risk assessment via a visit or can s/he request the info over the phone or internet and produce the relevant documentation?

DOH:I would suggest they MUST visit site as you need to look at what is on site and you look for dead legs etc so a visit is mandatory.

CODE: What would happen if an employer carried out own risk assessments and produced own documentation?

DOH:The employer must feel he is competent, and in the case of any problems, be able to demonstrate competency to an external regulator. In this case, it would be the HSE. Competence requires more than just the ability to carry out a risk assessment it is also requires knowledge of the law, plumbing, microbiology as well as safety and a water treatment.

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