Buy a DSEAR assessment on comparable terms

Information to assemble before requesting quotes

Mark unknown items explicitly. A supplier can price discovery work; it cannot price an assumption you have not disclosed.

• □Site address, number of buildings and approximate operational floor area
• □Short description of each process, including cleaning, maintenance and foreseeable abnormal work
• □Dangerous-substance inventory with quantities, locations and current safety data sheets
• □Site and process layouts, PFDs or P&IDs where available
• □Ventilation, extraction, gas detection and isolation information
• □Existing DSEAR, COSHH, fire, HAZOP or related assessments
• □Existing hazardous-area drawings and Ex-equipment registers
• □Incident, near-miss, enforcement, insurer or planned-change context
• □Required timescale, operational access limits and shutdown constraints

Project brief

Required quotation format

• □Named assessor and proposed supporting team
• □Scope and method, including site attendance and document review
• □Deliverables, file formats and draft/final review process
• □HAC schedules, calculations and drawings included or clearly excluded
• □Assumptions, buyer dependencies and exclusions
• □Fixed fee or day-rate basis, VAT, travel and additional-work rates
• □Proposed dates and validity period

Competence and evidence questions

DSEAR does not prescribe one universal assessor certificate. Test competence against the actual work you are buying.

1. Who is the named assessor, and what relevant training, qualifications and current professional standing can you evidence?
2. Which recent projects involved comparable substances, release conditions and process complexity?
3. Who will undertake hazardous area classification and produce calculations or drawings if it is required?
4. Which standards and industry guidance do you expect to use, and where might a specialist test or separate discipline be needed?
5. Can you provide current professional indemnity and public liability evidence appropriate to the project?
6. How do you quality-review reports and deal with disputed assumptions or factual corrections?
7. Will you declare subcontractors, conflicts, referral arrangements or product-sales interests?

Report acceptance check

• □Correct sites, processes, substances, quantities and operating conditions
• □Evidence sources and material assumptions are visible
• □Normal work, cleaning, maintenance and credible abnormal events are considered
• □Release scenarios, ventilation and ignition sources are connected to conclusions
• □Hazardous-area classification is included where needed and absent only for an explained reason
• □Drawings and schedules agree with the written report
• □Existing controls and gaps are distinguished
• □Actions are specific, prioritised and assigned sensible timescales
• □Unresolved tests, data gaps and specialist dependencies are explicit
• □Draft factual corrections and final debrief have been completed

Review triggers after appointment

Keep the assessment connected to operational change. Regulation 5 requires review where there is reason to suspect the assessment is no longer valid or where there has been a significant change.

• □New substance, supplier formulation or materially different quantity
• □New plant, process, layout, ventilation or extraction arrangement
• □Changed release point, operating temperature, pressure or transfer method
• □Modified electrical or mechanical equipment in or near a hazardous area
• □Fire, explosion, loss of containment, near miss or control failure
• □Evidence that an assumption, drawing or safety-data basis is no longer current

Primary basis: DSEAR 2002, Regulation 5 ↗ and HSE L138 ↗.