- Author
- Byron Raal, CAS Founder-Editor About the author
- Checked against
- AS/NZS 3788
- Date last checked
- 22 August 2026
Who is a competent person for pressure equipment inspection in Australia?
There are two of them, and Australian practice uses the same phrase for both. The registration competent person is defined in the work health and safety regulations, is tested on educational or vocational qualifications in an engineering discipline relevant to the plant or knowledge of the technical standards relevant to it, and is the person whose inspection supports an item registration application before the vessel goes into service. The in-service competent person is the person who signs the recurring inspection report against AS/NZS 3788 for the rest of that vessel’s life. Different test, different moment, different document. If you ask a supplier for “a competent person” without saying which one you mean, you may well get the wrong one and not find out until an auditor asks.
Two competent persons, two documents
Australian pressure equipment uses one phrase for two different roles. Which one you need depends on the moment, not the vessel.
1 · Registration competent personDefined in the work health and safety regulations
- The test
- Educational or vocational qualifications in an engineering discipline relevant to the plant, or knowledge of the technical standards relevant to the plant.
- When it applies
- Once, before the item goes into service.
- What they sign
- The inspection that supports the item registration application.
- Where the test comes from
- Your own jurisdiction’s regulations. Clause numbering is not uniform across the states.
2 · In-service competent personThe role AS/NZS 3788:2024 assigns the recurring inspection
- The test
- A recognised credential combined with documented practical experience in pressure equipment inspection, judged against the vessel in front of them.
- When it applies
- Recurring, for the life of the vessel.
- What they sign
- The in-service inspection report, carrying the date, the findings and their details.
- Where the test comes from
- The technical standard, read together with your regulator’s current guidance.
Ask for evidence of qualifications and training records in pressure equipment inspection before you engage anyone. SafeWork SA names Engineers Australia, the Australasian Institute of Engineer Surveyors and AICIP as examples of bodies that recognise an inspector. That is an illustrative list, not a closed one, and the regulation does not require independence from you.
Source: model work health and safety regulations and AS/NZS 3788:2024 Amd 1:2025.
Key takeaways
- Two distinct roles share one phrase. Conflating them is the most common error in this corner of Australian pressure equipment practice, and it is the reason a duty holder can hold a valid registration and still have no one qualified to sign the next inspection report.
- The registration test is set by your jurisdiction’s work health and safety regulations: qualifications in a relevant engineering discipline, or knowledge of the relevant technical standards. It is an either or test, not a both test.
- The in-service test is set by the technical standard and rests on a recognised credential plus documented practical experience with the kind of equipment in front of the inspector.
- Clause numbering is not portable. The provisions cited below carry different numbers in different jurisdictions, and Victoria works under its own regime entirely. Cite the duty, then check your own regulator’s current numbering.
- The one test you can actually apply is the one SafeWork SA publishes: before you engage anyone, ask for evidence of their qualifications and their training records in pressure equipment inspection.
- Membership of a recognising body is an example of evidence, not a legal requirement, and the lists regulators publish are illustrative rather than closed.
The registration competent person
This one exists because of registration, and it appears once. Under the model work health and safety regulations, the purpose of registering an item of plant is to ensure that the item has been inspected by a competent person and is safe to operate. The application for item registration is supported by that inspection, and the competent person is the one who stands behind it.
The test is written into the regulations themselves. A person is competent to inspect an item of plant if the person has educational or vocational qualifications in an engineering discipline relevant to the plant to be inspected, or knowledge of the technical standards relevant to the plant to be inspected. Read that “or” carefully, because it is doing real work. A standards specialist with no engineering degree can satisfy the registration test on the second limb. So can a mechanical engineer who has read the applicable standards. The regulation does not require both, and it does not name a certification scheme.
Two practical consequences follow. First, this is a one-off. Once the item is registered, the registration competent person’s job on that vessel is done. Second, the numbering is local. In the model regulations and the jurisdictions that adopt them without renumbering, the registration purpose provision and the competence test sit at regulations 246 and 267 respectively, and I have read both in that form in NSW and Northern Territory regulator material. Do not carry those numbers into a submission in another jurisdiction without checking. Victoria is not a model work health and safety state at all and words its plant duties under its own Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.
If registration itself is your question rather than who signs for it, the pressure vessel registration guide covers the duty and the lodgement pathway state by state, and the AS 4343 hazard levels page and the hazard level calculator handle the classification that triggers it. This page does not repeat any of that.
The in-service competent person
This is the role most operators actually need, most often, and it is the one nobody defines for them. Once a vessel is in service, work health and safety law requires plant to be inspected on a regular basis by a competent person, and AS/NZS 3788 is the technical standard that Australian competent persons and regulators use to decide what regular means and what the inspection covers. The standard guides the duty; it is not itself the law.
The test here is different in kind. It is not a one-off documentary check against a registration application. It is a judgement about whether this person can look at this vessel, in this service, and tell you what its condition is and when it needs looking at next. In practice that means a recognised credential in pressure equipment inspection combined with documented practical experience of the equipment type, and it means the same person keeps signing for the life of the vessel.
The output is the part you can audit. An in-service inspection produces a written report, dated, signed, naming the person and their basis for competence, recording what was examined and what was found. Routine servicing does not produce that, and it does not substitute for it. A compressor technician who does not hold the inspection competency is not the person to sign the report, however good they are with the machine.
If your question is when rather than who, the air receiver inspection requirements page carries the cadence, the bands and the per-state layer. This page deliberately does not.
The one test a duty holder can actually apply
You are not going to adjudicate someone’s engineering qualifications across a desk, and you do not have to. SafeWork SA publishes the useful version of this test, and I would use it in any state: “Before engaging an inspector, you should ask them to provide evidence of their qualifications and training records in pressure equipment inspection.”
That is a request for documents, and it is answerable. Ask for it in writing before you engage anyone, and ask for four things:
- Evidence of qualifications, whichever limb of the test they are relying on.
- Training records specific to pressure equipment inspection, not general trade or maintenance training.
- Which role they are being engaged for. Are they signing for a registration application, or for a recurring in-service inspection? A person can be competent for one and not the other.
- Experience with equipment of this type and service. A credential earned on process vessels is not automatically experience on a compressed air receiver, and a good inspector will say so.
If a quote will not answer those four questions in writing, that is your answer. Keep whatever you are given: it is the evidence you will be asked for after an incident, not before one.
Recognition pathways, and why they are examples rather than a list
Regulators do point to bodies whose recognition they will accept. SafeWork SA’s wording is worth reading precisely, because it is routinely quoted as something stronger than it is. It says an inspector “may be a member of an organisation that recognise their qualifications and training such as Engineers Australia, the Australasian Institute of Engineer Surveyors or the Australian Institute for the Certification of Inspection Personnel.”
“May be a member” and “such as”. That is guidance naming examples, and it is South Australian guidance at that. It is not a national rule and it is not a closed list. An inspector who holds none of those three memberships is not thereby incompetent, and one who holds all three has still not been assessed against your vessel. The duty holder test above is the one that travels.
On AICIP specifically, there is a change worth knowing about because most published material has not caught up with it. The Australian Institute for the Certification of Inspection Personnel announced on 29 September 2025 that Weld Australia had formally taken over the management and administration of the AICIP certification program. AICIP’s own announcement is explicit about what that means for people already certified: “If you are already certified, your certification remains valid and unchanged”, and “Nothing changes for certificate holders right now. All current and upcoming exams, renewals and administration will continue as scheduled.” AICIP still describes itself as “a not for profit, voluntary organisation certifying inspectors of pressure equipment”, and that word voluntary matters: AICIP certification is a credential, not a statutory licence, and no Australian regulation makes it the definition of a competent person.
So treat AICIP as one well recognised pathway among several. If the person quoting you holds it, that is good evidence. If they do not, ask what they hold instead and judge that on the same four questions.
Independence: what the regulation asks, and what your insurer might
This is the point most commonly mis-stated in this niche, in both directions, so here is the careful version.
The duty names a competent person. The instruments I have read do not make independence from the equipment owner part of that test. The model regulation requiring regular inspection by a competent person says that and no more, and the SafeWork SA guidance quoted above sets a qualifications and training test without an independence element. In-house inspection by a suitably qualified employee is therefore normal in Australian heavy industry and is not, on its face, a breach of anything.
That is not the end of it, though, because independence is frequently a contractual or commercial requirement even where it is not a legal one. Your insurer may want it. A customer’s supply agreement may want it. A finance or acquisition due diligence process will usually want it. And there is an obvious judgement question sitting behind an in-house report that recommends deferring an outage. So the practical position is: the regulation does not require an independent inspector, and you should still ask your insurer and your major customers whether they do, before you rely on an in-house report.
I would rather say that plainly than pretend the law settles a question it does not settle.
Now you know what to ask for. Here is the vessel data to hand the inspector.
Free two-page PDF worksheet. It captures the details a competent person will ask for on the first call, and pairs them with the registration checklist for your state or territory. Print it, walk one receiver, and you will be able to brief an inspector in five minutes instead of thirty. Email only, and the download is on the next screen.
We email you the PDF and nothing else unless you ask. Form not loading? Email us directly at byron@compressedairsolutions.com.au with your enquiry.
What a competent person’s report should contain
Most operators meet this question the wrong way round. They already have a report in a folder and want to know whether it is any good. Here is what to look for.
- The vessel, unambiguously identified. Serial or plant number, design pressure, volume, and the registration or design registration number where one exists. A report that does not identify which vessel it is about cannot be matched to an asset later, and that is the single most common defect in the files I have been shown.
- The inspection type and the date. External or internal, and when. Both matter for working out when the next one falls due.
- Who signed it, and their basis for competence. Name, and the qualification, credential or membership they are relying on. An unsigned or initialled report is not evidence to a regulator.
- What was examined, and what was found. Not just a pass. The shell, heads, welds, supports, attachments, safety devices and drain arrangement, with the actual condition recorded, including “no defects found” where that is the finding.
- Actions and their timing. Anything requiring repair, monitoring or a shortened interval, with a date against it.
- The next inspection due date, and the basis for it. If the interval was set at the competent person’s discretion rather than fixed by the standard, the report should say so and say why.
If a report you hold is missing the identification, the signature or the next due date, it will not do the job you are keeping it for. Ask the inspector to reissue it. That is a reasonable request and a competent one will not blink at it.
Frequently asked questions
Is a competent person the same thing for registration and for in-service inspection?
No, and this is the error the page exists to fix. The registration competent person is defined in the work health and safety regulations, is tested on qualifications in a relevant engineering discipline or knowledge of the relevant technical standards, and supports an item registration application once, before the vessel goes into service. The in-service competent person signs the recurring inspection report against AS/NZS 3788 for the life of the vessel, and is judged on a recognised credential plus documented practical experience. A person can be competent for one role and not the other.
Does my inspector have to be AICIP certified?
No. No Australian regulation makes AICIP certification the definition of a competent person. AICIP describes itself as a not for profit, voluntary organisation certifying inspectors of pressure equipment, so it is a credential rather than a statutory licence. It is a well recognised pathway and good evidence of competence, but it is one pathway among several. Judge anyone you engage on evidence of qualifications and training records in pressure equipment inspection.
Is AICIP still operating after the Weld Australia change?
Yes. AICIP announced on 29 September 2025 that Weld Australia had formally taken over the management and administration of the AICIP certification program. AICIP’s announcement states that if you are already certified, your certification remains valid and unchanged, and that nothing changes for certificate holders right now, with current and upcoming exams, renewals and administration continuing as scheduled.
Does the inspector have to be independent of my business?
Not as a matter of the regulation. The duty names a competent person, and the instruments we have read do not make independence from the equipment owner part of that test, which is why in-house inspection by a suitably qualified employee is normal in Australian heavy industry. Independence is often a contractual requirement even where it is not a legal one, so ask your insurer and any customer whose supply agreement covers plant condition before you rely on an in-house report.
Which regulation number should I cite?
Cite the duty, then check your own jurisdiction’s numbering, because it is not portable. In the model work health and safety regulations and the jurisdictions that adopt them without renumbering, the purpose of item registration sits at regulation 246 and the competence test for inspecting plant at regulation 267. Victoria is not a model work health and safety state and words its plant duties under its own Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. Confirm the current clause with your own regulator before you put a number in a submission.
Can our maintenance contractor sign our air receiver inspection?
Only if they hold the inspection competency, and most compressor service contractors do not. An in-service inspection is a formal examination producing a signed written report, which is a different activity from routine servicing and is not covered by being good with the machine. Ask for evidence of qualifications and training records in pressure equipment inspection specifically, and ask what experience they have with vessels of your type and service.