Risk Assessment

At Aegis we cannot stress enough how important the risk assessment process is and that success will greatly depend upon how effectively the risk assessment has been communicated to employees. Consultation with employees should be taking place through requesting feedback and offering opportunities for employees to add value through their experience and attitudes.

The requirement to conduct a risk assessment is from the Management of Health and Safety at Work regulations 1999. Section 3 within the regulations states that all work activities must be subject to a suitable and sufficient risk assessment, but what does suitable and sufficient mean?

Suitable means – that the assessment must be appropriate to the job or task that you are conducting at your own at others premises.

Sufficient means – All significant hazards and associated risks are taken into account.

The agreed best practise to successfully conduct a risk assessment is by using the 5 steps to risk assessment, so let us run those 5 steps.

5 Steps to Risk Assessment

Step 1 – Identify hazards. We are looking to identify all hazardous substances present or reasonably foreseeable to be present. Identify the quantity of the substances used and identify the hazards associated with these substances from labels, safety data sheets, HSE guidance and any other credible information sources such as industry etc.

Step 2 –  Then we need to determine who can be harmed and how that harm will potentially occur, taking into account the possible routes of entry into the body, inhalation, ingestion, absorption and injection. Note that there is a requirement to look at the substance and the activities where persons could be exposed to hazardous substances. This must also include visitors, contractors, third parties on shared sites and members of the public. We must even consider trespassers.

Step 3 –  We then need to evaluate the risks to health including the duration and frequency of exposure such as the concentration of a substance such as gas, airborne dusts. Workplace Exposure Limits (WEL) must be considered at this step. Decide on precautions, what needs to be done to control exposure. All existing control measures should be evaluated for their effectiveness using monitoring records if available, if none are available decide what are the requirements for monitoring. Decide on additional controls if required, and any maintenance and supervision is required. Emergency plans should be reviewed and revised as required. Decide if any health surveillance is required, and decide on what information, instruction and training is required. We must understand the likelihood of injury or harm occurring and what we must do to prevent or reduce the risk down to its lowest level using the ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’ (SFARP) understanding. SFARP means weighing up if enough resources have been allocated to controlling a hazard in proportion to its risk.

Step 4 – Record the findings of the assessment if you have 5 or more employees. Decide upon the format of the record, what risk assessment format will you use. Then decide upon the method of storage ensuring that the record is available for employees, safety reps and regulators.

Step 5 – Review the assessment at regular intervals or as required when you have changed a process, change to persons exposed, after an accident/ incident or incident of ill health relating to hazardous substances or following a significant near miss. Also a change in personnel may also warrant a review as the competency of those carrying out the task may have changed.Note that the risk assessment is a live document and should not be filed away and forgot about! The risk assessment must be regularly reviewed and hopefully workers should should be reporting near misses and incidents and accidents which will alert you to the need to review the risk assessment.

As you can now appreciate the risk assessment process is vital in keeping people safe and promoting a good health and safety culture at work. We hope that you have found this informative and look forward to you joining us for future insights or even becoming one of our valuable partners in safety.