Continuing Competence: the deadline that quietly voids your cover

The most common way a permitted waste site becomes non-compliant is not a missing manager. It is a manager who is still there, still named on the permit, and holding a Certificate of Technical Competence that looks perfectly valid, but whose Continuing Competence lapsed months ago and nobody noticed.

The qualification does not expire. Competence does.

The CIWM (WAMITAB) Level 4 Operator Competence qualification, once achieved, does not have an expiry date. What has to be kept current is the person’s Continuing Competence. Every technically competent person in England and Wales has to pass a Continuing Competence assessment every two years to remain valid as the named manager on a permit.

When the two years run from

The clock is not calendar-based and it is not tied to the qualification date in the way people assume. The two years run from the date printed on the Primary Qualification Certificate, or from the date on the last Continuing Competence Certificate, whichever is more recent. Pass the assessment and the clock resets for another two years.

Miss it, and the person no longer counts as technically competent for the permit, regardless of the framed certificate on the office wall.

Why sites get caught out

Nobody sends a reminder. The certificate does not change colour. The manager keeps coming to work. The only thing that changes is a date, and unless someone is tracking that date, the first time it surfaces is often during an inspection, which is the worst possible moment to discover it.

How to check where you stand

Two conditions both have to be true:

• The person is named on the current version of your permit.
• Their Continuing Competence is in date, meaning they have passed the assessment within the last two years.

Find the permit, find the name, then find that person’s most recent Continuing Competence Certificate and check the date falls inside two years. If either condition fails, the site needs to act now rather than at the next audit.

Tracking it is part of the job

When we provide COTC cover or WAMITAB cover, keeping that assessment date in view is part of the arrangement, not an afterthought. A named manager whose competence quietly expires is exactly the risk the cover is meant to remove.

If you are not certain your named person is still current, send us the permit and we will help you check.