New Reference Practice For Safety Specialist On Machinery Directive Professional Profile

Reference Practices (PdRs) introduce technical prescriptions or sectoral application models of specific standards when there are no national, European or international standards or draft standards. They may contain good practices already in use in citizen/consumer services, sectoral applications of existing specifications, industry specifications, protocols for the management of proprietary brands, locally tested management models, nationally adopted CWAs. In this case, the Safety Specialist PdR has been developed and published in Italy to give a common reference to rule one specifical non-regulated by law profession: the Safety Specialist on Machinery design and Construction. This PdR falls under the category of "products of European standardization," as outlined in EU Regulation No. 1025/2012. In the paper, the new Italian PdR will be presented and explained in details: legal aspects, relevant definitions, knowledge, skills, autonomy, and responsibility requirements and elements for conformity evaluation. As a rule, the regulatory framework for professional activities also fits within the context of the European Union, serving as a useful tool for the mobility of individuals and the removal of barriers to the free movement of human capital. The official publication of this PdR at the end of 2023 (UNI/PdR 151:2023), allows the application of it as a common basis for training and validation of competences for this new professional activity.