What is a Health and Safety Risk Assessment?
A risk assessment for health and safety is a process in which you evaluate the potential hazards that could cause harm or ill-health from your work activities, machinery and business premises. After assessing, a professional consultant will provide you with a health and safety method statement to enable your organisation to implement suitable and sufficient controls to ensure a safe working environment.
- Hazard – Anything which has the potential to cause harm
- Risk – The likelihood that harm will occur
- Risk Assessment – The identification of hazards, calculation of risk and the elimination or reduction of that risk to an acceptable level
The five simple steps of a Risk Assessment
- Identify the hazards
- Assess the risk - decide who might be harmed and how
- Eliminate, Reduce or Control Risk
- Record the findings
- Review
While no organisation can completely eradicate all health and safety hazards, it is a legal requirement to identify the hazards and assess and control the risks by carrying out a holistic risk assessment in the workplace. Thus ensuring you have suitable policies, procedures, and practices (safe systems of work) in place that significantly reduce the severity of the occurring risks. For example, a fire might still occur, but you will have a practised evacuation in place, which results in everyone getting out of the building safely.
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What is Looked at During a Risk Assessment
When carrying out the assessment, we look at a number of things that could increase the level of risk or become potential hazards at a later stage. Here are the most important steps when carrying out a health and safety risk assessment:
- Identify the hazards present in the workplace.
- Identify those at risk from the hazards, including employees, contractors and visitors. Particularly vulnerable workers, such as young people, new staff members and new or expectant mothers, should also be considered.
- Evaluate the danger of environmental factors and working practices, taking into account the likelihood of accidents. Also, identify and evaluate existing controls that are in place to reduce risks.
- Record findings in a suitable form.
- Review the assessment on a regular basis or when things change, such as when new equipment is installed, processes change, or accidents occur.
What is a Health and Safety Method Statement?
A method statement, also referred to as a ‘safe system of work’, is a document that details how certain tasks around the workplace will be carried out to ensure that they are safe and legally compliant. The method statement must outline the hazards identified during your risk assessment and the steps you will take to reduce any implicated risks from said hazard.
The health and safety method statement should also explain what control measures have been introduced to ensure the safety of anyone carrying out or affected by hazardous tasks.
As part of our health and safety risk assessment service, your dedicated consultant will produce a method statement based on their findings during the assessment.
What are the Legal Requirements of Risk Assessments and Method Statements?
As previously mentioned, workplace risk assessments are legally mandatory for every business. But what exactly are the legal requirements of risk assessments and method statements? The law states that a risk assessment must be suitable and sufficient for the risks involved. The level of detail should be proportionate to the risks of the industry and individual companies.
Insignificant and unforeseeable risks can be ignored, but every risk assessment and method statement should show that:
- A thorough check was conducted
- You enquired about who might be affected by the potential risks
- You dealt with all obvious significant risks, taking into account the number of people who could be involved
- Reasonable precautions are in place, and the remaining risk is low
- Your workers or their representatives were involved in the process
Want us to Assess the Hazards in Your Workplace?
Our risk assessment service includes:
- An onsite visit from your health and safety consultant
- Completed risk assessment, identifying all hazards present on site, persons affected, control measures and date of the review
- Risk assessment documentation, including the method statement provided to you both in hard copy and electronically
- Legal advice on health and safety management concerns that arise
- Reviewed annually if you remain a client
- Regular updates on health and safety changes via our electronic newsletter
If you would like to find out how our Birmingham-based health and safety consultants can add value to your business and assist you with the management of health and safety, call us on 0845 2626 260 or contact us to book a free consultation.
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