It is at this stage that you must decide who is to be responsible for

what, giving due consideration to competence, training needs, available time,

etc. The titles (e.g. safety manager) and names of the designated persons

should be stated on the policy and if the designated person is an employee you

may also wish to include their health and safety duties in their job

descriptions. See Fig.17-5.

The policy statements should be prepared by the employer in consultation with the designated people. Individuals must be fully aware of their duties and must have the chance to voice their opinions. The whole system will be more likely to work if the employer is seen to be taking it seriously and if it is not considered to be just a paper exercise. It will almost certainly fail if people do not know what is expected of them or they do not feel competent to discharge their responsibilities or if they think that aspects of the policy are impractical or irrelevant.