Five steps to risk assessment

By law, employers are required to protect employees and others from harm. This general duty arises from the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 state that every employer must assess the work-related risks faced by employees and non-employees.

The purpose of the risk assessment is to identify what measures must be put in place to protect people and comply with the Regulations and other applicable legislation.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 also require risk assessments to be reviewed, but do not stipulate how the risk assessment should be completed.

There is a widely accepted method of carrying out a risk assessment, commonly referred to as the five steps to risk assessment. Here we explain the steps in detail.

Step 1: Identify the hazards

Identifying hazards means taking some time to think about what might harm people at work.

You can identify hazards by:

Thinking about the tasks that employees carry out, such as using computers, working at height, driving and travelling for work, lifting and carrying, cleaning and maintaining the workplace, cooking or working alone or at unfamiliar locations.
Inspecting your workplace to look for hazards, such as lack of space or unsuitable layout, poor flooring and staircases, inadequate lighting, lack of ventilation or very high or low temperatures, unsuitable welfare facilities, equipment that is in a poor condition and physical access problems that impact people with disabilities.
Looking at the items that people use like machinery, materials, office furniture, display screens and computers, ladders and steps, hand tools, lifts, pallet trucks, cooking facilities and chemicals.
Considering hazards that are not typically visible, such as shift, night or lone working, biological hazards such as legionella, or gas, electricity, noise and dusts and fumes.
Speaking with people who do the work, they can tell you about the hazards they may face or problems they have.
Reviewing sources of information such as legislation, industry guidance, your workplace accident and ill health data, equipment manufacturer information, and chemical data sheets.

Remember

A hazard is anything that can cause harm.
You only need to identify hazards which are significant, which you can reasonably be expected to know about and which are relevant. Hazards which are part of everyday life, are not associated with your work, or are insignificant, like paper cuts, shouldn’t form part of a good risk assessment.
Use a competent person to carry out your risk assessment. Consider where you need expert help for complex risk assessments. These might include display screen equipment assessments, disability and stress risk assessments, fire risk assessments, legionella assessments or environmental monitoring assessments for noise or lighting.

Step 2: Decide who might be harmed and how

For each hazard you identified in the first step, you need to decide who might be harmed by the hazard and how. In addition to employees, consider:

People who visit your premises such as customers and clients.
Contractors working on your premises.
Others you share a premises with, like tenants in a shared building.
Members of the public.
Think about people near your work or workplace. Hazards such as noise, dust or fumes might impact more than the people carrying out a task.
Consider hazards that might especially harm particular groups, such as people with disabilities or health conditions, young or inexperienced workers, new and expectant mothers, employees who work shifts or part time, people who work remotely, seasonal workers, and people whose first language isn’t English.

Remember

Look at hazard specific legislation. For example, Schedule 1 of The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 states the factors which should be considered when assessing handling tasks.
Not all employees will be exposed to the same hazard; musculoskeletal hazards might not apply to people who do not use computers or carry out manual handling activities.
The same hazard might impact groups of people in different ways; users of a substance might be harmed by absorption, but other people might be harmed by inhalation if fumes are produced.

Step 3: Evaluate and control

Now you have identified hazards and determined who might be harmed, you need to evaluate risk which involves considering how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how severely, taking account of what you are already doing to protect people.

While there is no one prescribed way of assessing risk, you could:

Use a simple risk matrix with defined terms for likelihood and severity.
Use (and adapt!) model assessments created by reputable sources such as industry bodies or associations.
Many organisations have their own methods of assessing other business risks, such as information security, which you might be able to use and adapt for assessing health and safety risks too.

If your assessment of risk is high or unacceptable, you should look at what is reasonable for you to do to reduce the risk. Some risk reduction measures might include:

Removing a hazard, such as designing a task to eliminate repetitive handling or adapting a task so it isn’t done at height.
Replacing a hazard with something less risky like changing a chemical with one that is less hazardous or replacing a tool with one that emits less noise when in use.
Using engineering or work equipment controls to reduce risk, such as extracting fumes or dust from the workplace or enclosing noisy areas to protect hearing.
Taking steps to improve behaviours and competence such as training, developing safe working policies and procedures and installing safety signage to warn people of hazards.
Providing personal protective clothing and equipment to mitigate the consequences or hazards such as high visibility clothing in dark or high traffic areas or providing hearing, hand or respiratory protection.
Thinking about emergency situations and what you need to have in place should something go wrong, like evacuation plans and first aid.

Remember

Focus on addressing hazards that present the highest risk first. You might need long-term plans to address complex issues.
Some people might need additional protection, such as new and expectant mothers who might be more susceptible to musculoskeletal discomfort or need protection from specific hazardous substances.
Employers are not expected to eliminate all risk or take disproportionate steps. What is reasonably practical is a balance of effort, time, trouble, and cost against the benefit.

Step 4: Record your findings

Employers with five or more employees are required to record risk assessments. If you have less than five employees, you can still record your assessment as best practice.

A good risk assessment should evidence that you have:

Carried out a proper check of your workplace.
Taken steps to find out who might be harmed.
Identified significant hazards.
Implemented reasonable precautions to reduce risk as far as practical.
Consulted with the necessary people e.g. employees and/or their representatives as part of the process.
An action plan in place where further steps are needed to reduce risk.

A recorded risk assessment should also include key information such as when it was completed, who completed the assessment, a description of what the assessment covers, for example the tasks, equipment and substances used, the location, and the people considered at risk, who was consulted during the assessment and when the assessment should be reviewed.

Remember

Recording a risk assessment means you can:

Communicate it to employees.
Produce it on request e.g. during an audit or inspection.
Provide it to interested parties, such as potential clients when tendering for work or contractors working at your site.

Step 5: Review

Risk assessment is not a one-off process. Reviewing risk assessments assists with identifying new hazards or changes which require controlling as well as confirming existing control measures remain effective. New hazards or changes might include changes to:

Employee demographics or employing a person with a disability.
The way work is done.
The equipment or substances used.
The work environment.
Legislation applicable to your workplace and activities.

Sources of information which can help with reviewing your risk assessment include:

Results of inspections and surveys.
Feedback from employees.
Data from work related accidents, near misses or cases of work related ill health.
Health surveillance reports.
New information on the hazardous properties of substances used.
Information on hazards from reputable sources such as safety alerts from the Health and Safety Executive.

Remember

Always record any changes you make to a risk assessment.
Update any action plans to address risks.
Communicate revised risk assessments, as necessary.
It is a good idea to record revised assessments as new versions so you can demonstrate changes and continual improvement.

If you would like any further information on our risk assessment services or find out more about what we do click here: Health & Safety | System Concepts Ltd