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710 Energy Control Program (Lockout/Tagout)
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Periodic Inspection

Evaluating Written Energy-Control Procedures

An evaluation of lockout/tagout procedures is required annually and must be conducted by an authorized employee other than the person who performs the procedures.

Three employees but the authorized employee is performing a lockout tagout inspection
An authorized employee who does not perform LOTO on the equipment, should inspect and evaluate the LOTO procedure.

If your authorized employee(s) perform all of the lockout/tagout procedures, you might have to have a supervisor designated as an authorized employee. The supervisor can then conduct the evaluation of lockout/tagout procedures.

Either the employer or the inspector must document each inspection with the information listed below.

  • equipment on which the procedure is used
  • date of the inspection
  • workers included in the inspection
  • person who did the inspection

If an inspector finds that workers are not following an energy-control procedure or that the procedure is not protecting them, those workers must be retrained and the procedural deficiencies corrected.

The authorized employee who does the inspection must understand the procedure and must not be among those following the procedure at the time of the inspection. Each procedure must be verified for its accuracy, completeness and effectiveness in energy control.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.

4-1. If your authorized employee(s) perform all of the lockout/tagout procedures, who may perform the lockout/tagout procedure inspections?