Risk assessment is a function of the Management of Health
and Safety at Work Regulations, Regulation 3, and requires
every employer to make a suitable and sufficient assessment
of -
the risks to the health and safety of his
employees to which they are exposed whilst
they are at work; and
the risks to the health and safety of persons
not in his employment arising out of or in
connection with the conduct by him of his
undertaking,
for the purpose of identifying the measures he needs to take
to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon
him by or under the relevant statutory provisions.
Risk assessment can be defined as a careful examination
and identification of the hazards involved in your work,
coupled with an estimate of the risks involved.
The aim is to gather enough information to make educated
decisions on the extent of precautions that need to be
taken to prevent harm from occurring.
A hazard is defined as something with the potential to
cause harm, eg. chemicals, electricity, working from
ladders, using display screens etc.
Risk is defined as the probability of harm occurring from
a particular hazard, and the severity of its consequences,
ie. the chance of harm actually being done.
The extent of any risk should also take into account the
number of people exposed to the hazard.
What Should a Risk Assessment Do?
The purpose of risk assessment is to help the employer or
self employed person to determine what measures should be
taken to comply with their duties under the 'relevant
statutory provisions'.
The process of risk assessment can be broadly split into
four main phases:
Identification of all the hazards present in a particular task.
Evaluation of the risks associated with the hazards identified.
Implementation of measures to control the risks.
Recording the assessment if there are five or more employees.
For a risk assessment to be termed suitable and sufficient,
it must:
identify hazards, and evaluate the risks arising from those
hazards, taking into account the relevant Acts and Regulations,
record findings (for employers who employ 5 or more persons),
identify people most at risk, including both employees and other
groups such as visitors, contractors and the general public,
evaluate existing controls,
judge the probability of accidents occurring,
identify information required by employees,
provide an action plan for additional controls, listed in order
of priority with a realistic timescale.
Looking For Hazards
Tasks should be analysed for hazards as follows:
All hazardous operations should be identified.
All possible contacts with sources of energy
or harmful substances should be identified.
All hazards and hazardous activities identified
should be listed.
During the analysis, it would be advisable to involve
an employee experienced in performing the task.
Workplace hazards can be identified by the following two stages:
The plans and drawings of the area must be
examined, and any plant and associated hazards
listed.
There should be a `walk through' of the area,
to identify and list other hazards not noted in
the plans. e.g., access problems, confined
spaces, lighting, noise and temperature.
When these two stages have been completed, the list of
hazards produced should be added to those posed by the
task.
Conducting and Recording a Risk Assessment
In order to produce a suitable and sufficient assessment, the
following points should be recorded:
The Task/Situation.
The number of people at risk.
Any groups of people especially at risk.
Any cases of serious or imminent risk. (requires written procedures and a competent person to carry them out).
The probability of harm occurring and the realistic 'worst-case scenario'.
Relevant health and safety information required by employees and others. (should include a review of safety signs and audio-visual warnings).
Any additional training needs.
A reference to existing controls ans whether or not these are satisfatory.
The action required in order of priority, with a proposed timescale, and an indication of who is responsible for the action.
Various sets of health and safety regulations require other
assessments, some of which can be integrated into the risk
assessment, while others are best dealt with as separate
issues.
Those capable of being integrated into the risk assessment are:
Assessment of factors relevant to a safe working environment.
Assessment of the need or provision of personal
protective equipment (PPE) including the level of
risk and an estimate of the performance requirements
for the PPE.
Assessments which are best dealt with as separate issues are:
COSHH,
manual handling,
display screen equipment, workstations,
fire precautions.
Although other assessments may be dealt with separately, their
existence should be referenced in the risk assessment process.
Generic assessments are assessments produced only once
for a given activity or type of workplace.
eg., where a company has several locations where
the same activity is carried out, then a single
generic assessment could be carried out for that
activity which would cover all locations.
Generic assessments however, can result in very poor
control, with little improvement in safety.
Risk / Hazard Control
All final decisions about risk control measures must take
into account the relevant legal requirements which establish
minimum levels of risk protection or control.
The selection and implementation of the most appropriate
method of risk or hazard control is a crucial part of the
risk assessment.
Maintaining Risk Assessments
Risk assessments require periodic reviews and updates.
Maintaining a risk assessment is best achieved by a
combination of inspection and monitoring, and taking
additional action where necessary.
The techniques which should be included in the maintenance
scheme are as follows:-
Preventative maintenance inspections.
Safety representative or committee inspections.
Statutory and maintenance scheme inspections, tests and examinations.
Safety tours and inspections.
Occupational health surveys or measurements.
Safety audits.
It is for the particular company to decide when and how often
to check the hazard controls that have been put into place.
Some tasks however, are required by law to be inspected by
specially appointed people.
Here are some key examples of the timescales that you should
be thinking about.
Ventilation equipment must be examined and tested every fourteen months.
Power press guards must be inspected at each shift.
Scaffolds must be inspected weekly.
Rescue equipment must be examined monthly.
Remember that checks are not a substitute for maintenance.