What changed in Israel's safety officer qualification rules in 2025?

Who this applies to

Safety officers holding a certificate of competence, candidates for certification — particularly safety practical engineers, for whom a new route has opened — employers who hold an appointed officer, and training providers.

What it means in practice

• A new qualification route opens for a safety practical engineer: completing the safety practical-engineering track approved by the Government Institute for Technological and Scientific Training, then one of two alternatives — at least 18 months' work in the field at no less than 32 hours a month under the direct supervision of an officer with at least three years' seniority, or at least three years' experience working in the profession.
• Both alternatives require passing an examination before a committee appointed by the Chief Labour Inspector. The examination is held at least twice a year, on dates the Chief Inspector publishes.
• The supervised route requires two declarations to the Chief Labour Inspector — one at the start of the work and one at its end — on the forms added as First Schedules A and B.
• The continuing education duty changed: instead of eight training days a year, twelve training days every three years. That is a change of cadence, not only of number.
• A certificate of competence now has a defined validity — three years — renewable for further three-year periods, provided the continuing education duty has been met.
• Anyone who has not reported participation in training days for more than eight years since their last report must re-pass the safety officers' course final examination; and if they do not pass it, must retake the course in full.
• A renewal concession is set out: the Chief Labour Inspector may renew a certificate even where training days were not completed, if a prolonged emergency during the period affected the ability to complete them. 'Emergency event' is expressly defined in the amendment.
• Sub-regulation 3(c) is repealed.

What is usually needed

• The date of your last report on training days — it determines both the eight-year count and when your own transition period begins.
• Your existing certificate of competence and its date.
• Records of training days you have completed but not reported.
• For candidates on the new route: the safety practical-engineering track certificate, and the identity and seniority of the supervising officer.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the amendment changed who must appoint a safety officer. It does not touch regulation 4 at all.
• Reading 'twelve training days' as an annual duty. It is a duty over three years.
• Assuming a certificate that was valid expired immediately. The transitional provision says otherwise — it remains valid until three years from the date you would first have been required to report after the commencement day, and the new number of days must be completed in that period.
• Letting reporting lapse. After eight years without a report, renewal is no longer administrative and requires re-examination.
• Relying on professional summaries alone. Several omitted the repeal of regulation 3(c), the eight-year rule and the transitional provision.

The tool that continues from here

• Annual Safety Plan BuilderBuilds an annual safety plan from Hoshen's guide: ten domains, tasks with an owner and a target date, status tracking and a printable report.

The Hoshen service