(a) Assistant Secretary responsibility. A State's performance under a Cooperative Agreement will be regularly monitored and evaluated by the Assistant Secretary as part of a systematic Federal plan for this activity. The Assistant Secretary may require changes as a result of these evaluations to foster conformance with consultation policy. If the State policies or practices which require change are such that the State's assurance of correction of serious hazards and of the effectiveness of employers' safety and health programs is in doubt, the Assistant Secretary may, pending the completion of the changes, suspend recognition of a State's consultative visits as a basis for exemption from compliance inspection as permitted under § 1908.7(b)(4).

(b) Consultant performance—(1) State activity. The State shall establish and maintain an organized consultant performance monitoring system under the Cooperative Agreement:

(i) Operation of the system shall conform to all requirements established by the Assistant Secretary. The system shall be approved by the Assistant Secretary before it is placed in operation.

(ii) A performance evaluation of each State consultant performing consultation services for employers shall be prepared annually. All aspects of a consultant's performance shall be reviewed at that time. Recommendation for remedial action shall be made and acted upon. The annual evaluation report shall be a confidential State personnel record and may be timed to coincide with regular personnel evaluations.

(iii) Performance of individual consultants shall be measured in terms of their ability to identify hazards in the workplaces which they have visited; their ability to determine employee exposure and risk, and in particular their performance under § 1908.6 (e) and (f); their knowledge and application of applicable Federal or State statutes, regulations or standards; their knowledge and application of appropriate hazard correction techniques and approaches; their knowledge and application of the requirements of an effective workplace safety and health program; and their ability to communicate effectively their findings and recommendations and the reasons for them to employers, and relevant information, skills and techniques to employers and employees.

(iv) Accompanied visits to observe consultants during onsite consultative visits shall be conducted periodically in accord with a plan established in each annual Cooperative Agreement. The State may also conduct unaccompanied visits to workplaces which received onsite consultation, for the purpose of evaluating consultants. A written report of each visit shall be provided to the consultant. These visits shall be conducted only with the expressed permission of the employer who requests the onsite consultative visit.

(v) The State will report quarterly to the RA on system operations, including copies of accompanied visit reports completed that quarter.

(2) Federal activity. State consultant performance monitoring as set out in § 1908.9(b)(1) shall not preclude Federal monitoring activity by methods determined to be appropriate by the Assistant Secretary.

(c) State reporting. For Federal monitoring and evaluation purposes, the State shall compile and submit such factual and statistical data in the format and at the frequency required by the Assistant Secretary. The State shall prepare and submit to the RA any narrative reports, including copies of written reports to employers as may be required by the Assistant Secretary.