Roles & Responsibilities
Every warehouse with racking should have a named PRRS. The role isn’t optional, it isn’t tokenistic, and it isn’t the same as just ‘someone who notices when things look broken’. Here’s exactly what the PRRS does, who in your team is suited to it, and what they need to be effective.
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The Person Responsible for Racking Safety (PRRS) is the named individual at your site who owns racking safety on behalf of the business. The role is defined in HSG76 and the SEMA Codes of Practice, and exists because no external annual inspection is enough on its own to keep racking safe between visits.
The PRRS is the bridge between three things:
Important
The PRRS is not the same as the SARI inspector. The PRRS is an internal employee responsible for ongoing internal monitoring. The SARI is an external (or sometimes internal but separately qualified) expert who carries out the annual inspection. Both are required for compliance. Neither replaces the other.
HSE guidance HSG76 sets out a three-tier approach to racking safety:
The PRRS occupies tier 2. Without that tier, damage that operators don’t report can sit in the racking for up to a year before the SARI catches it. By that point, an Amber finding from last year may have escalated to a Red finding, or worse. The PRRS exists specifically to close that gap.
Although no statute uses the words ‘Person Responsible for Racking Safety’, PUWER’s requirement for inspection at ‘suitable intervals’ combined with HSG76’s recommendation of weekly internal checks means that having a trained PRRS is, in practice, the standard way to demonstrate compliance.
The PRRS role has six distinct responsibilities. Some are weekly tasks, some are response duties, and some are about managing the wider system.
Typically a weekly walk-around of the racking, with findings logged. The PRRS is checking for new damage, deterioration of known damage, missing safety accessories, and operational practices that increase risk (overhanging pallets, mixed components, missing load notices).
A written record of every defect found, the date, the location, the severity, and any action taken. The damage log is the document the SARI works alongside during the annual visit and the document an HSE inspector or insurer will ask for.
When forklift drivers or other staff report damage, the PRRS is the point of contact. They assess the damage, log it, decide on immediate action (offload? barrier? repair?), and follow up.
Using the SEMA traffic light criteria, the PRRS decides whether each finding is Red (offload now), Amber (repair within 4 weeks), Green (monitor), or borderline (call the SARI for a view). Knowing where the boundaries are matters.
The PRRS is the on-site contact during the annual inspection. They walk the site with the SARI, share the damage log, discuss findings, and ensure the report’s recommendations get to the right people once it arrives.
Operator awareness, toolbox talks, briefings on findings, input into layout changes, and feedback to maintenance and operations teams. The PRRS is the in-house expert and other team members should know to come to them.
The PRRS doesn’t have a particular job title. In different warehouses we see the role held by warehouse managers, shift supervisors, H&S officers, maintenance leads, and senior forklift drivers. What matters is the combination of attributes:
Practical Tip
Many warehouses appoint two PRRSs: a primary and a deputy. This keeps things covered during holidays and absences, and spreads the institutional knowledge across more than one person. It’s particularly worth doing on multi-shift sites where one PRRS can’t realistically cover all operating hours.
Nominating a PRRS without training them is, in compliance terms, almost worse than not nominating one at all. It creates a paper trail showing the duty was assigned, but no evidence that the person was equipped to discharge it.
A trained PRRS should be able to:
Our one-day Rack Awareness Training course is specifically designed to give a nominated PRRS this competence. The course is delivered by an active SARI inspector, includes practical recognition exercises, and issues a three-year certificate on successful completion. Most operators send a PRRS and a deputy together, so the role has appropriate cover.
It’s worth being clear about what the PRRS is not, because this is where compliance arguments most often go wrong:
The PRRS handles internal weekly checks. The annual expert inspection still has to be carried out by a technically competent person, almost always a SARI. Having a PRRS does not let you skip the annual visit.
The PRRS identifies and categorises damage. They do not repair it. Repairs require trained personnel using manufacturer-approved methods and components. A PRRS who is also a maintenance technician needs separate training and authorisation for the repair work itself.
Operator damage reporting (tier 1) sits beneath the PRRS. If your forklift drivers are not trained or empowered to report damage, the PRRS will be perpetually behind the curve. The PRRS works best as the second line, not the only one.
Statutory duty under PUWER and the H&S at Work Act rests on the employer, not on individuals. The PRRS carries out delegated duties on behalf of the business. If the business fails to act on a report from the PRRS, that’s the business’s failing, not theirs.
The honest answer is: less than people think, but more than just ‘nominated on the H&S manual’. For a typical single-shift warehouse with a few thousand pallet locations, expect roughly:
For larger or multi-shift sites, scale these figures up or split the role across a primary and deputy. The point is that the role is realistic; it’s a meaningful but not overwhelming time commitment, well within reach of a competent warehouse supervisor or H&S officer.
Not by name, no. PUWER and the Management Regulations require you to ensure work equipment is regularly inspected by a competent person, and HSG76 explains that this is best done through a tiered system including internal inspections by a trained nominated person. In practice this means having a PRRS. Skipping the role makes it much harder to demonstrate compliance.
Yes, and often is. The H&S manager has overall responsibility for safety but is rarely on the warehouse floor often enough to carry out weekly checks. A warehouse supervisor or shift lead is often a better fit for the PRRS role, with the H&S manager kept informed.
In principle yes, but in practice it creates problems. The PRRS needs continuity, training, and authority to act. A short-term contractor rarely has all three. If you’re using contracted labour, appoint someone permanent as the PRRS and have the contractors report into them.
It’s similar in concept: a named individual with a specific safety responsibility, who has been trained for it. The differences are in subject matter and frequency. A fire warden may rarely act in their role between drills, whereas the PRRS is checking the racking weekly. The administrative parallels (training records, named appointment, documented duties) are very similar.
Yes. The annual or quarterly SARI inspection is a different role in the compliance regime. Even if you used a SARI monthly, HSG76 still expects internal inspections by a competent on-site person between those visits. The PRRS’s involvement also gives operators an immediate point of contact for damage reporting, which an external inspector cannot.
At a minimum, a weekly inspection log showing date, who carried out the inspection, and any findings. A damage register tracking each finding from identification through to repair. And action records where damage was reported and dealt with outside the weekly cycle. These three documents together provide the audit trail an HSE inspector or insurer expects to see.
Appoint a replacement and arrange training as quickly as practical. The handover should include the damage register, the current weekly inspection routine and any open issues. If there’s a gap of more than a few weeks, consider whether your annual SARI inspection should be brought forward to provide an updated baseline.
Yes, and often should be. Many warehouses run a primary and deputy PRRS arrangement, which keeps the role covered during leave and absences and avoids reliance on a single person. Both should be trained.
The one-day course that trains your nominated PRRS in racking anatomy, damage identification and the SEMA classification system.
What the PRRS should look at on each weekly walk-around, in what order, and how to record findings.
Weekly, monthly, annual, post-incident and high-throughput exceptions explained.
