Had a reply already!!!!!!!!!
"Dear Mr Quinney
Could you let me know who you are dealing with in HSE, what the agenda and aim of the meeting will be and a date, time and location, if I am available I will hopefully attend, dependent on diary commitments.
We have been in negotiations with both the ECI and the Unions in relation to ECI Skills Database cards, for over 10 years, we have never put any agreement in place re the acceptance of ECI skills cards. Although I do not doubt many of the ECI skills cards holders are very experienced scaffolders, I did hold the card myself and know several very good scaffolders who held these cards, however that card is issued based upon experience and employer endorsement only, as opposed to the CISRS scheme which is based upon formal training, experience and assessment.
All ECI cardholders were written to by the ECI informing them that they would have to obtain CISRS cards by the end of this year and that they would require training. The unions sent out further correspondence requesting responses from card holders who did not already hold a CISRS card and were opposed to carrying out training, the response was very poor, less than 100. It was felt that the vast majority of existing ECI card holders had now undertaken the CISRS training and obtained their CISRS card.
We have not had a Grandfather rights route to a CISRS card for over 25 years, we did have an Assessed Route of Entry course in place for over 10 years 1996-2006, for experienced scaffolders however this was withdrawn following the introduction of the WAH Regs 2005, which stated competence for Scaffolder must include specific formal training which is opposed to an assessment only route.
If you can provide me with the further information as requested, I will respond accordingly.
Regards
Dave Mosley
CISRS "
Ragscaff