Risk assessment
A risk assessment is an important step in protecting your workers and your business, as well as complying with the law. It helps you focus on the risks that really matter in your workplace – the ones with the potential to cause harm. In many instances, straightforward measures can readily control risks, for example, ensuring spillages are cleaned up promptly so people do not slip or cupboard drawers kept closed to ensure people do not trip. For most, that means simple, cheap and effective measures to ensure your most valuable asset – your workforce – is protected.
The law does not expect you to eliminate all risk, but you are required to protect people as far as is ‘reasonably practicable’. This guide tells you how to achieve that with minimum fuss.
What is risk assessment?
A risk assessment is simply a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh up whether you have taken enough precautions or should do more to prevent harm. Workers and others have a right to be protected from harm caused by a failure to take reasonable control measures.
Accidents and ill health can ruin lives and affect your business too if output is lost, machinery is damaged, insurance costs increase or you have to go to court. You are legally required to assess the risks in your workplace so that you put in place a plan to control the risks.
Five steps to risk assessment
This is not the only way to do a risk assessment, there are other methods that work well, particularly for more complex risks and circumstances. However, we believe this method is the most straightforward for most organisations.
How to assess the risks in your workplace
Follow the five steps in our leaflet: Five steps to risk assessment .
1. Identify the hazards
2. Decide who might be harmed and how
3. Evaluate the risks and decide on precaution
4. Record your findings and implement them
5. Review your assessment and update if necessary
Don’t overcomplicate the process. In many organisations, the risks are well known and the necessary control measures are easy to apply. You probably already know whether, for example, you have employees who move heavy loads and so could harm their backs, or where people are most likely to slip or trip. If so, check that you have taken reasonable precautions to avoid injury.
If you run a small organisation and you are confident you understand what’s involved, you can do the assessment yourself. You don’t have to be a health and safety expert.
Sensible risk management
Despite the stories you hear, the HSE is about saving lives, not stopping people living. We’ve identified ways of making sure attention is on the issues that really matter.
Despite the stories you hear, the HSE is about saving lives, not stopping people living.
We believe that risk management should be about practical steps to protect people from real harm and suffering - not bureaucratic back covering. If you believe some of the stories you hear, health and safety is all about stopping any activity that might possibly lead to harm. This is not our vision of sensible health and safety - we want to save lives, not stop them. Our approach is to seek a balance between the unachievable aim of absolute safety and the kind of poor management of risk that damages lives and the economy.
Here are our principles of sensible risk management.
How can you help?
You can help promote a sensible approach to health and safety by:
· Letting others know about the principles of sensible risk management and ‘Myth of the Month’
· Demonstrating your support for the principles by putting them into action, in the way you manage health and safety risks.
· Don’t be fooled by myths. If in doubt – check!
Principles of sensible risk management
With the help of research and the views of many organisations and individuals, we devised some simple principles of sensible risk management.
1. Sensible risk management is about:
o Ensuring that workers and the public are properly protected
o Providing overall benefit to society by balancing benefits and risks, with a focus on reducing real risks – both those which arise more often and those with serious consequences
o Enabling innovation and learning not stifling them
o Ensuring that those who create risks manage them responsibly and understand that failure to manage real risks responsibly is likely to lead to robust action
o Enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right to protection, they also have to exercise responsibility
2. Sensible risk management is not about:
o Creating a totally risk free society
o Generating useless paperwork mountains
o Scaring people by exaggerating or publicising trivial risks
o Stopping important recreational and learning activities for individuals where the risks are managed
o Reducing protection of people from risks that cause real harm and suffering
This is the statement of general policy and arrangements for: / Name of organisationOverall and final responsibility for health and safety is that of: / Name of employer
Day-to-day responsibility for ensuring this policy is put into practice is delegated to:
Statement of general policy / Responsibility of
(Name / Title) / Action / Arrangements
(Customise to meet your own situation) /
To prevent accidents and cases of work-related ill health and provide adequate control of health and safety risks arising from work activities
To provide adequate training to ensure employees are competent to do their work
To engage and consult with employees on day-to-day health and safety conditions and provide advice and supervision on occupational health
To implement emergency procedures - evacuation in case of fire or other significant incident. You can find help with your fire risk assessment at: (See note 1 below)
To maintain safe and healthy working conditions, provide and maintain plant, equipment and machinery, and ensure safe storage / use of substances
Health and safety law poster is displayed:
First-aid box and accident book are located:
Accidents and ill health at work reported under RIDDOR: (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) (see note 2 below)
Signed: (Employer) / Date:
Subject to review, monitoring and revision by: / Every: / months or sooner if work activity changes
All employers must conduct a risk assessment. Employers with five or more employees have to record the significant findings of their risk assessment.
We have started off the risk assessment for you by including a sample entry for a common hazard to illustrate what is expected (the sample entry is taken from an office-based business). Look at how this might apply to your business, continue by identifying the hazards that are the real priorities in your case and complete the table to suit.
You can print and save this template so you can easily review and update the information as and when required. You may find our example risk assessments a useful guide (www.hse.gov.uk/risk/casestudies). Simply choose the example closest to your business.
Organisation name:
What are the hazards? / Who might be harmed and how? / What are you already doing? / Do you need to do anything else to manage this risk? / Action by whom? / Action by when? / Done /Slips and trips / Staff and visitors may be injured if they trip over objects or slip on spillages / We carry out general good housekeeping. All areas are well lit including stairs. There are no trailing leads or cables. Staff keep work areas clear, eg no boxes left in walkways, deliveries stored immediately, offices cleaned each evening / Better housekeeping is needed in staff kitchen, eg on spills / All staff, supervisor to monitor / 01/10/2010 / 01/10/2010
Employers with five or more employees must have a written health and safety policy and risk assessment.
It is important youdiscuss your assessment and proposed actions with staff or their representatives.
You should review your risk assessment if you think it might no longer be valid, eg following an accident in the workplace, or if there are any significant changes to the hazards in yourworkplace, such as new equipment or work activities.