Risk Assessments: what they are, why they're important and how to complete them.

Different types of risk assessments

• Fire risk assessments: fire safety management procedures are required to be established in all workplaces including a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment.

• Manual handling risk assessments: should be conducted in any workplace where an employee may be at risk from injury and/or ill-health through the need to lift, carry, move loads.

• Display screen equipment (DSE) risk assessments are required to be completed in workplaces where employees (and others) are using computers, laptops, etc.

• COSHH risk assessments are required within workplaces where hazardous substances are stored, used or manufactured.

Why are risk assessments important?

• To identify health and safety hazards and evaluate the risks presented within the workplace

• To evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of existing control measures

• To ensure additional controls (including procedural) are implemented wherever the remaining risk is considered to be anything other than low.

• To prioritize further resources if needed to ensure the above.

When to carry out a risk assessment?

How to carry out a risk assessment?

1. Identifying potential hazards

1. Identifying who might be harmed by those hazards.

1. Evaluating risk (severity and likelihood) and establishing suitable precautions

1. Implementing controls and recording your findings

1. Reviewing your assessment and re-assessing if necessary.

• Observation: Walking around your workplace and looking at what activities, tasks, processes or substances used could harm your employees (or others)

• Looking back over past accidents and ill-health records as they may identify less obvious hazards.

• Checking manufacturers’ data sheets, instructions, information and guidance

• Consulting with employees (and others) who are carrying out the activities, tasks or processes.

• Employees

• Contractors

• Likelihood that harm may occur

• Severity of harm that may occur

• Knowledge about eliminating, reducing or controlling hazards and risks

• Availability of control measures designed to eliminate, reduce or suitably control or the risk

• Costs associated with available control measures designed to eliminate, reduce or suitably control or the risk

• What hazards were found

• Person(s) or groups affected

• The controls put in place to manage risks and who is monitoring them

• Who carried out the assessment

• On what date the assessment was done.

• After any significant change within the workplace or process in question

• After an accident or ill-health incident has occurred

• After near-misses have been reported.

• Any hazards identified

• What controls are in currently in place, and information on any further control measures that may be required

• Any individuals that have been identified as being especially at risk.

The types of risk assessment required within any workplace should be proportionate and relevant to the operational activities being undertaken. In many industries, there are specific legislative requirements that apply. For example, in environments where hazardous substances are used a Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Assessment (COSHH) should be completed (for more information see What is COSHH?).

Some common types of risk assessments include:

A business may also choose to complete a Risk Assessment Method Statement (RAMS) dependent upon the nature of the operations being carried out. This process contains details of the hazard and a step-by-step procedure on how to complete work and suitably control the risks identified. This process is commonly used within the construction industry.

As previously stated, carrying out suitable and sufficient risk assessments is the primary management tool in effective risk management. It is a legal requirement for any employer and must be documented wherever five or more people are employed.

Risk assessment is a straightforward and structured method of ensuring the risks to the health, safety and wellbeing of employees (and others) are suitably eliminated, reduced or controlled

The main purpose of risk assessments are:

It can be a costly lesson for a business if they fail to have necessary controls in place. They could face not only financial loss (through fines, civil actions, etc) but also loss in respect of production time, damage to equipment, time to train replacement employees and negative publicity amongst others.  

A recent article in BSC Safety Management magazine outlines an incident where a business was ‘fined £274,000 after two workers became trapped in moving machinery in two separate incidents’ (see 2 Sisters fined after finger and thumb severed at poultry factory.) In the report, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Saffron Turnell noted that “companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.” It is cases like this one that should act as a warning for all business and highlight the importance of risk assessments.

It is the responsibility of the employer (or self-employed person) to carry out the risk assessment at work or to appoint someone with the relevant knowledge, experience and skills to do so.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states that an employer must take reasonable steps ‘for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures.’ So even if the task of risk management is delegated, it is ultimately the responsibility of the management within any business to ensure it is effectively completed.

Once hazards have been identified, the associated risks evaluated and steps taken to minimise the potential effects, the next step for an employer is to clearly and effectively communicate the risk assessment process and content to relevant parties.

The process of communication is more effectively achieved if the relevant persons are involved with the risk assessment process at every stage. The person carrying out an activity or task is often best placed to provide details on the associated hazards and risks and should participate fully in the completion of the risk assessment.

A suitable and sufficient risk assessment must be carried out prior to a particular activity or task being carried out in order to eliminate, reduce or suitably control any associated risk to the health, safety and wellbeing of persons involved with (or affected by) the task/activity in question.

Once completed a risk assessment should be reviewed periodically (proportionate to the level of risk involved) and in any case when either the current assessment is no longer valid and/or if at any stage there has been significant changes to the specific activity or task.

Relevant risk assessments should be reviewed following an accident, incident or ill-health event in order to verify if the control measures and level of evaluated risk where appropriate or require amendment.

The HSE has recommended a five-step process for completing a risk assessment. This provides a useful checklist to follow to ensure that the assessment is suitably comprehensive. It involves:

Step 1. Identify potential hazards

It is important to firstly identify any potential hazards within a workplace that may cause harm to anyone that comes into contact with them. They may not always be obvious so some simple steps you can take to identify hazards are:

It may be useful to group hazards into five categories, namely physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychological. 

Step 2. Identify who might be harmed by those hazards

Next, identify who might be harmed by those potential hazards. It should also be noted how they could be affected, be it through direct contact or indirect contact. It is not necessary to list people by name, rather by identifying groups including:

Some hazards may present a higher risk to certain groups including children, young people, new or expectant mothers, new employees, home workers, and lone workers.

Step 3. Evaluate risk severity and establish precautions

After identifying any hazards and who might be affected, it is important to evaluate the severity the risk may present (should it occur) and establish suitable and effective controls to reduce this level of risk as far as is ‘reasonably practicable’.  This means that everything possible is done to ensure health and safety considering all relevant factors including:

Assessing the severity of a risk requires an evaluation of the likelihood of an occurrence and how substantial the consequences that it may cause. Some factors affecting this evaluation include the duration and frequency of exposure, number of persons affected, competence of those exposed, the type of equipment and its condition, and availability of first-aid provision and/or emergency support.

Step 4. Implement changes and record your findings

It is sensible to ensure the risk assessment is proportionate to the activity or task being carried out and this can often be a straightforward process for generic tasks.

Step 5. Review your assessment and reassess if necessary

Employers should periodically review the assessment and if necessary, re-assess any controls in place.

A good guide as to when you may need to review your processes are:

What documentation do you need?

It is a misconception that risk assessments inherently involve a vast amount of paperwork. It can be as straight forward as completing a basic risk assessment form for many generic tasks or activities.

However, employers should make sure they record significant findings including:

There is no set amount of time that you are required to retain the risk assessment, but it is best practice to keep it as long as is considered relevant to a particular task or activity.

Risk assessments are an integral part of ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of everyone within the workplace.

This article was first published by The British Safety Council.