During my ppl training, I was sent solo after only 11 hours. Some friends of mine soloed with less hours than that. My point is the NPPL pilot, with (at least) 35 hours, is surely competent by any standards.
Surely safety/competency is a matter of personal judgement, eg is the weather/aircraft/route suitable for my experience. In my opinion this judgement has to be made by all levels of pilots on all flights, and the individual qualification held is irrelevant