LOTO Procedures – Roles & Responsibilites

We were recently asked for guidance on assigning roles and responsibilities for a lockout tagout procedure. Without knowing the details of the operations, staff competence, nature of the hazard etc, it’s almost impossible to generalize on this. But we did provide the following general guidance.

Roles & responsibilities could be the same for any other business operational task, where there is a desired outcome. In the case of the LOTO procedure, this must be ‘completion of the maintenance or repair task, within expected timescale, and without any injury to personnel’. There should be mitigation in the event that snags are encountered, with a method to resolve.

There must always be a chain of command and at each level adequate training and competence to complete the task.

In a typical example, the minimum requirement should be:

1. Person carrying out the task.
2. Supervisor to oversee the task.
3. Plant Manager

Also take into account anyone who might be affected by task taking place.