Entry procedures, permits-to-work and standby person duties
This domain tests the permit-to-work system, the pre-entry sequence and the standby person's duties. Scenario questions usually break one link in the chain: an expired permit, an absent standby, or an entry log that does not balance.
Permit and pre-entry sequence
A permit is issued by an authorised person after the risk assessment, isolation and gas testing are complete. It identifies the space, the work, the hazards, the controls, the entrants, the standby, communication and rescue arrangements, and its validity period. It is displayed at the entry, signed on and off, revalidated when conditions change and cancelled at completion. A permit is not a substitute for the assessment.
The pre-entry sequence is: assess, isolate, purge and ventilate, test, permit, brief the team, check equipment, barricade and sign the entry, test communication, then enter. The standby remains at the entry, maintains communication, monitors the entrants, operates retrieval equipment, prevents unauthorised entry, accounts for everyone and summons rescue. The standby does not enter to rescue unless trained, equipped and relieved.
Worked example
A permit expires at 12:00. At 12:30 the workers are still inside and the standby has gone to collect tools. This breaches the permit's validity, removes the standby function and leaves no one to summon help or operate the winch. The correct action is to stop work, exit, account for personnel, re-test and revalidate the permit before any re-entry. The reasoning is that each control is time-bound and person-bound.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating the permit as paperwork to sign after entry.
- Letting the standby enter without RPE, backup or a replacement.
- Failing to re-test after lunch or a shift change.
- No entry log, or a log that is not reconciled at the end.
- Allowing unauthorised people past the barrier.
- A verbal handover with no documented revalidation.