Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

20.3 
NGC3 – The practical application
The guide to the NEBOSH National General Certifi cate is 
essential reading for all candidates before they attempt 
the practical application. The guide contains details on 
the aims of the application, the rules to be followed, the 
breadth and depth of observations and management 
report expected and the marking scheme.
In this section, the NEBOSH guide is summarized 
in section 20.3.1 and a specimen practical application, 
with associated observations and management report, 
is given in section 20.3.2.
20.3.1
Requirements of the practical
application
The practical application aims to test the application 
of basic health and safety knowledge to a workplace 
inspection. The test assesses the understanding of key 
issues and the ability to communicate the fi ndings of the 
inspection in an effective way to a member of the senior 
management team. The formal aim of the assessment is 
Figure 20.4
Flat 
roof

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Introduction to Health and Safety at Work
432
to prove a candidate’s ability to successfully complete 
two activities:
➤
to carry out unaided a safety inspection of a work-
place, identifying the more common hazards, decid-
ing whether they are adequately controlled and, 
where necessary, suggesting appropriate and cost 
effective remedial action; and
➤
to prepare a report that persuasively urges man-
agement to take appropriate action, explaining why 
such action is needed (including reference to pos-
sible breaches of legislation) and identifying, with 
due consideration of reasonable practicability, the 
remedial measures that should be implemented.
The inspection should take between 30 and 45 minutes
and cover as wide a range of hazards as possible. 
Observations and comments should be noted on the 
observation sheets provided by NEBOSH (see Appendix 1 
of this chapter).
Candidates are expected to recognise actual and 
potential hazards and good – as well as bad – work 
practices and welfare provisions. While only brief details 
of each hazard are required, it is important that the 
assessor can subsequently identify:
➤
where the hazard was located
➤
the nature of the hazard
➤
the degree of risk associated with the hazard
➤
the remedial actions, where appropriate, with relevant
prioritization.
On completion of the inspection, candidates are allowed 
about one hour to produce the report, which must nor-
mally be in their own handwriting. Candidates are given 
a summary of the headings under which marks are allo-
cated both for the report and observation sheets.
The whole assessment must be carried out under 
as near examination conditions as possible and should 
not normally take more than two hours. Candidates are 
not allowed to use previously prepared or organizational 
checklists or any other reference material.
For the inspection and