What is a Health and Safety Risk Assessment?

The following article draws on information from the www.hse.gov.uk website. It is to provide general guidance. You should seek professional advice for specific situations.

A risk assessment is the process of identifying potential Health & Safety hazards then making a decision about how serious they are, i.e. rating the risk. You need to consider anything which might harm or injure a person. For example:

• where people might fall or collide
• electrical installations and machinery
• hazardous substances
• other particular hazards of your business.

You must also take into account potential longer term risks to employees’ health: for example, causes of physical or mental stress; poorly designed workstations; and the manual handling of objects.

You are legally required to carry out a risk assessment and take steps to control any risks you identify. You should review the assessment regularly (e.g. annually), when circumstances change (e.g. if you introduce any changes relating to equipment or working practices), or if you think the previous assessment is no longer valid.

Find out how to conduct your risk assessment here http://www.venturenavigator.co.uk/content/495/ and access a useful risk assessment here http://www.venturenavigator.co.uk/content/494/