In many organisations, DSE assessment responsibility lands with whoever seems like the logical choice. The HR Manager. The Health and Safety lead. The office manager who already handles a dozen other compliance tasks. Sometimes it's simply whoever put their hand up.
That's not necessarily wrong. But there's a question that often goes unasked: have they actually been trained to do it?
What the Law Says
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 require employers to ensure that workstation assessments are carried out by a competent person. The HSE's own guidance on this, L26 (Work with Display Screen Equipment), makes clear that a DSE Assessor doesn't need a formal qualification. What they do need is competence. In Northern Ireland, it is HSENI (the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland) that enforces these Regulations, but the legal requirement and the standard of competence expected are the same.
Competence, in this context, means being trained to recognise the risk factors involved, knowing what to look for and understanding what action to take when something isn't right. That's a specific set of knowledge and skills, not something that comes automatically with a job title or years of general experience.
In my work across Northern Ireland and the wider UK, I come across businesses where this training was simply never provided. The person doing the assessments was told what to do, handed a checklist and got on with it. The intention was good. The gap was the training.
When Assessments Are Actually Required
Another area where businesses often fall short is understanding when an assessment is needed. DSE assessments aren't a one-off exercise when someone joins the organisation.
Under the Regulations, an assessment should be carried out or reviewed:
When a new workstation is set up or an existing one is significantly changed
When a DSE user changes role and their workstation setup changes with it
When a user reports discomfort, pain or visual difficulties that may be work-related
After a return from extended absence
Beyond these legal triggers, best practice suggests a periodic review, typically every one to two years, even where nothing specific has changed. Workstations drift over time. People adjust their setup, change their chair height, move equipment around or bring in their own kit. A periodic check catches those changes before they become problems.
The Risk of Getting This Wrong
Poorly conducted DSE assessments don't just create a compliance gap. They can result in musculoskeletal problems, eye strain and fatigue that go unaddressed, sometimes for months or years. When someone eventually does report a problem, the question will be whether their workstation was ever properly assessed.
An assessment carried out without adequate training is unlikely to identify the issues that matter. A trained assessor knows how to look at posture, equipment positioning, the wider environment and the interaction between them. They also know when something is outside their scope and needs to be referred on to Occupational Health or a Chartered Ergonomist.
DSE Assessor Training
I run a DSE Assessor Training course for businesses across Northern Ireland, designed for exactly the situations I've described above. It's practical and hands-on, covering:designed for exactly the situations I've described above. It's practical and hands-on, covering:
The legal framework and what the DSE Regulations actually require
Who counts as a DSE user
When an assessment needs to be carried out
A step-by-step walkthrough of assessing posture, equipment and the wider environment
How to complete the workstation checklist properly, including the final questions and follow-up that often gets skipped
When to refer on to Occupational Health or a Chartered Ergonomist
The session ends with a practical assessment at a real workstation. Delegates leave having actually done an assessment, not just having sat through a presentation about one.
Alternatively: Let Me Do the Assessments for You
If the right answer for your organisation is to have the assessments carried out by a specialist rather than training someone in-house, that's something I offer too.
With hundreds of DSE assessments behind me, I work through workplace assessments efficiently, providing each individual with a clear, actionable assessment report. Organisations also receive a summary report covering common themes and priority actions, and I can provide a manager briefing where that would be useful.
Which Option Is Right for You?
That depends on the size of your organisation, how frequently your workforce changes and the resource you have available. Both options are available to businesses across Northern Ireland.
Training an in-house DSE Assessor makes sense where you have a stable workforce, a designated person with capacity to take this on properly, and a reasonable volume of ongoing assessment activity. It gives you an internal capability that can respond quickly when a trigger event occurs.
Bringing in an external assessor makes sense where you need a large number of assessments completed efficiently, where you don't have a suitable person to train, or where the complexity of your workplace warrants specialist input.
Both options are available, and for some organisations a combination works best.
Get in Touch
If you're unsure whether your current approach to DSE assessment is meeting your legal obligations, or if you'd like to discuss training or assessment services, I'm happy to have a conversation. I work with businesses across Northern Ireland and would be glad to help you find the right approach for your organisation.
Julie Rainey MSc C.ErgHF MCIEHF MIHFES is a Chartered Ergonomist and Human Factors Specialist and the founder of Ergo & Wellbeing Ltd. She works with businesses across Northern Ireland and the wider UK on ergonomics, workplace design and DSE compliance.
