Engineer surveyors: a testing role01 June 2006

In the beginning?there were boiler explosions, and lots of them! And so the engineer surveyor, as we know that person today, came into existence - around the middle of the 19th century. This was a time of rapid industrial expansion that was driven, figuratively and literally, by steam. Mancunians will say with pride that, in that era, their city had the greatest concentration of steam boilers of any city in the world.

Unfortunately, with few design codes and with metallurgy in its infancy, boiler explosions were all too common. When boilers explode, people get killed, but what was sadly of more concern to the average Victorian entrepreneur was the fact that his boiler explosion resulted in loss of earnings and a costly rebuild of his boiler house, if not his factory.

The commercial insurers of Manchester were not too happy about this situation either and began to insist on boiler insurance being linked to some form of inspection. To this day, there remains a strong link and several of the country's leading inspection bodies are still closely associated with an insurance parent.

What an engineer surveyor is not is an insurance inspector. The primary job of an inspection body is to undertake, on behalf of its clients, the examinations and inspections of plant and installations as required by health and safety legislation. The responsibility under law for having these examinations and inspections carried out remains with the employer of people at work, but inspection bodies assist the employers to discharge this responsibility.

Engineer surveyors are the people who actually undertake the examinations and inspections. Somewhat surprisingly, there is no national register, so the exact number can only be estimated. Take first the 'big five' inspection bodies. That is: Allianz Cornhill Engineering, Bureau Veritas, HSB Haughton, Royal & SunAlliance and Zurich. Between them, these companies employ approximately 2,500 engineer surveyors. There are then quite a large number of smaller inspection bodies and sole operators who account for a similar number, bringing the total up to something in the order of 5,000 people nationally.

Knowledge and experience
Generally speaking, the term 'engineer surveyor' is synonymous with 'competent person', an expression used throughout health and safety legislation. There does not exist a statutory definition of 'competent person' and the definitions that do exist differ somewhat from regulation to regulation. However, the one most commonly used is contained in the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) - ACOP 9 - which defines the competent person thus: "You should ensure that the person carrying out a thorough examination has such appropriate practical and theoretical knowledge and experience of the lifting equipment to be thoroughly examined as will enable them to detect defects or weaknesses and to assess their importance in relation to the safety and continued use of the lifting equipment." One other somewhat curious fact is that legislation does not contain a quantitative description of competence, in terms of what level of experience is appropriate, the maximum academic qualifications required and what are the appropriate levels of supervision and support.

These quantitative measures certainly do exist, but are only formally applied by the 'big five', along with a number of smaller inspection bodies. These organisations are accredited to an international standard to undertake defined inspection activities by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), the only organisation that is recognised by the government as being able to accredit inspection bodies.

The standards of competence are given a further boost through membership of the trade body for the inspection industry, the Safety Assessment Federation (SAFed). Full members of SAFed are required to be UKAS accredited, and one of the primary aims of the trade body is the enhancement of the abilities and knowledge of the competent person.

A typical engineer surveyor will have had some form of recognised apprenticeship in an engineering subject. Most accredited inspection bodies will require typically three- to five-years' relevant post apprenticeship experience and an engineering qualification at HNC level or equivalent. Most inspection organisations and certainly the 'big five' classify their engineer surveyors by discipline (see list below).

Your own boss
One of the attractions of the job is the sense of being your own boss of your own district. Most engineer surveyors work from home. They will have a portfolio of clients, with plant of their own discipline that requires inspecting.

Take an example of a lift and crane engineer surveyor with a predominantly industrial district. The engineer surveyor will keep records of what examinations are due, and when, and make all necessary arrangements and appointments and manage the district, so that the examinations are undertaken on time. The thorough examination is just that: thorough. It is a close and detailed visual scrutiny of the lifting machine in question and, as the definition of the competent person says, is to: "detect defects or weaknesses and assess their importance". The engineer surveyor may call for special tests, such as some form of non-destructive testing, or may require items to be dismantled for further scrutiny from time to time. At the end of the examination, the engineer surveyor will produce a report, as required by the regulations, and must clearly identify those defects that are, or could, become a danger to persons. In this way, every working day of the week across the length and breadth of the country, these surveyors will be finding critical defects and preventing accidents.

Variety is another big plus of the job. One day, a lift and crane engineer surveyor might be examining £4 million worth of ship-to-shore container crane - a machine standing 50m tall, weighing several hundred tonnes and fitted with half a mile of wire rope. The next day, he may well be checking out the equipment in a children's playground, feeling for rough edges that could cause cuts or abrasions. Ask that engineer surveyor which task is the more rewarding and my guess is that the answer will be: "both, of course!"

Engineer surveyor disciplines
Lifting plant (numerically the largest discipline, industry wide) includes:
- lifts
- escalators
- motor vehicle lifting tables
- cranes of all types
- forklift trucks
- loose lifting tackle
- pressure steam boilers
- pressure vessels
- pressurised systems
- electrical fixed wiring installations The minor disciplines (in terms of numbers):
- power press
- local exhaust ventilation (LEV) systems
- hazardous plant

Phil Wright is chief engineer at Allianz Cornhill Engineering

SOE

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