Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser - DGSA - Responsibilities

The responsibilities of a Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser are detailed in ADR, section 1.8.3.

The main responsibilities are:

• monitoring compliance with the requirements governing the carriage of dangerous goods
• advising the undertaking on the carriage of dangerous goods
• preparing an annual report to the management of the undertaking or a local public authority, as appropriate, on the undertaking's activities in the carriage of dangerous goods. Such annual reports shall be preserved for five years and made available to the national authorities at their request. To assist DGSAs, BADGP has created an Annual Report Template. This is available to members, as a downloadable PDF or Word document, from the Member Only area of this website: BADGP Example DGSA Annual Report

DGSAs are expected to monitor organisational compliance to company policies and procedures for the safe management of dangerous goods. DGSAs will normally be involved with the development and updating of company policies and procedures, as the regulations and practices change over time.

Most DGSA will also find that they will be called on to have a vast array of knowledge of business areas not directly related to the transport of dangerous goods; or know where to find answers to questions not in their direct remit. Including but certainly not limited to:

• General health and safety
• Engineering
• Equipment selection
• Handling equipment
• Incident response
• Storage