WHO DOES IT APPLY TO?

Absolutely everybody, from your staff, to visitors to your facilities/premises/site/farm/quarry....

A competently carried out Risk Assessment will take all of these into account

WHY DO WE ASSESS?

You could say because the law says we have too! However good risk assessments will reduce the chances of incidents injuring or killing people - whether employees or others - or damaging equipment. Reducing accidents can be essential to reduce your insurance premiums (we have clients saving 60% of their insurance premiums since we took on their H&S systems - considerably more than our fees!), improving moral of staff, decreasing down time, improving productivity, keeping the "HSE" from your door etc. The cost of the assessment can be recouped many times over both directly and indirectly

WHAT SHOULD BE ASSESSED?

Everything! Assess all of your processes, and other potential areas that may cause/be a risk. The historic highest risk currently of injuries in the work place is from Manual handling problems, recent reports have indicated that Slip Trip and Falls is becoming the major source of problems, as manual handling risk management improves; so are your stairs illuminated, changes in height well marked, trailing cables eliminated, walkways free of rubbish, floors non slip etc.

Tasks involving insignificant risk may be ignored in the final risk assessment.

PREPARING FOR AN ASSESSMENT

The accident book should be analysed to indicate potential areas of risk. No further preparation is required, for a real assessment the normal working conditions should be seen by the assessor.

CARRYING OUT ASSESSMENTS

Assessments can be carried out by your own competent person or by an external consultant. The assessor will discuss with operators how they carry out their tasks, watch the operations, look at the equipment used, and then use their experience and the answers and observations to prepare an assessment.

Talking to the operators and listening to what they have to say will often highlight risks, or indicate actions taken to minimise risk that would not be noted by an individual not normally carrying out that work (e.g. the use of a stepped foot board to reduce fatigue during operation of a machine). The assessments needs to cover all tasks or sources of risk, so site visits, or assessments carried out over several "visits" may be required to fully cover your needs. Every new process or change in process or procedure needs to be assessed anew as do changes in equipment or additions to existing equipment.

COLLECTING AND USING THE RESULTS

You can just file the results and ignore them however this doesn't meet the requirements of the law. The assessments should be reviewed and any required actions carried out. If a serious accident was to occur and it was shown that you had not carried out changes/improvements required by the risk assessments this could mean legal action being taken out against you.

All employees affected by the assessment should be made aware of the results of the assessment, particularly where training or additional actions are required. All employees should sign documentation to show that they have read the assessments and understood them. You can then be sure that you have met your legal obligations and that your employees and any visitors or members of the public are safer than they were before the assessments.

Specialist Assessments

In addition to the normal risk assessments on tasks and procedures in your company you may have to do additional assessments for Young People, Pregnant Women, Disabled staff, or employees with special requirements (religious, sexual, physical capabilities etc.)

For more information on Risk  Assessment