Regulation 3 Competence and fitness
No employer shall permit any of his employees to undertake any safety critical work unless—
the employee is competent and fit to undertake that work;
there is in existence an adequate record of any relevant assessments undergone by the employee;
the employer has issued the employee with a means of identification;
the employer has established suitable arrangements to enable a railway operator who is affected by the work to examine the record referred to in sub-paragraph (b) above, or be informed of its contents.
An employee shall carry with him the means of identification referred to in paragraph (1)(c) when he is undertaking any safety critical work.
The Executive may for the purposes of this regulation approve for the time being assessments to be undergone by employees undertaking safety critical work and in the case of each such assessment the procedures to be followed and the standard to be achieved in relation thereto and the intervals within which the assessment is to be undergone again.
Where the Executive has approved assessments under paragraph (3) then, without prejudice to the generality of sub-paragraph (a) of paragraph (1), an employee shall not be treated for the purposes of that sub-paragraph as competent and fit to undertake the work to which the assessments relate unless he has undergone each such assessment in accordance with any procedures so approved and within any intervals so approved, and in the case of each such assessment has achieved a standard not less than that so approved.
Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (3)—
assessments approved under that paragraph may include medical assessments made by registered medical practitioners approved by the Executive;
intervals approved under that paragraph may include intervals approved by reference to the time of resuming work following an event specified for the purpose in the approval.
Where an approval is given under paragraph (3) notice of it shall be published in such manner as the Executive considers appropriate for bringing it to the attention of employers likely to be affected by the approval.
An approval under this regulation may be given in respect of a class of safety critical work.
In any proceedings against a person for an offence of contravening this regulation, it shall be a defence for that person to prove that he took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of that offence.