[MarkP]

I've just had a look at John's HSE thread. Posters are missing a few points:

1) No matter how hard you try to cover yourself by attempting to comply with HSE regs, if an incident, particularly if it's serious, happens the HSE will try to stitch you. They will even pick you up on the slightest paperwork error, regardless of its relevance.

2) No matter how much the HSE bleats on about not harrassing individual instructors teaching their mates, in the event of an incident you'll probably find their definition of "reward" will extend to the coffee the student buys you.

3) The HSE's expert witness will swear that no matter how thorough your risk assesment, _he_ would have done it differently, and so would any reasonably prudent instructor. Your teaching methods will be ripped apart, regardless of your years of trouble free instructing. The expert witness, with the benefit of hindsight, would _never_ have done what ever it was like that.

4) In the event of an incident, you're fairly likely to get sued by the injured party, who's lawyers will attempt to prove that you were operating within HSE regulations, thus being negligent by not appointing yourself in writing as the contractor for the project. For example. This may or may not be upheld in court, but who want to get that far?

5) When I bailed out of teaching, there were huge grey areas in the HSE's ACOPs. For example (working from memory here) a "suitable person" should check all equipment before its use. Most HSE regualtions closely define such a person, usually being one who has attended a specialist course in the use of the equipment. The HSE's intention here is to include instructors and divemasters as such people, but in a civil case you can bet your last o-ring that some lawyer's going to take advantage of this grey area. Even the HSE recognise(d?) that the ACOPs is (was?) in need of revision here.

Bitter and twisted? Moi? No, I'm just delighted I packed it in when I did.

Sorry about the rant.

Regards,

Mark

PS. I never had any hassle with the HSE.