Risk Assessment Workshop for deliver to H&S Representatives to assist with risk and hazard awareness

1. Provided by Angela Bozward

2.  Management of Health and Safety at Work
Regulations
◦ The risk assessment shall be ‘suitable and sufficient’ and
cover both employees and non-employees affected by
the employer’s undertaking (e.g. contractors, members
of the public, students, patients, customers, etc.,)
◦ Any risk assessment shall be reviewed if there is reason
to suspect change has taken place
◦ The significant findings of the assessment shall be
recorded and any specially at risk group of employees
identified
www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l21.pdf

3. Risk assessment methods are used to decide on
priorities and to set objectives for eliminating
hazards and reducing risks. Wherever possible,
risks are eliminated through selection and design of
facilities, equipment and processes. If risks cannot
be eliminated, they are minimised by the use of
physical controls or, as a last resort, through
systems of work and personal protective equipment.
Successful Health and Safety Management
www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg65.pdf

4. H&S Policy Statement
People Involved
Risk Assessments
Active Monitoring
Benchmarking

5.  A suitable and sufficient risk assessment
should:
◦ Identify the significant risks and ignore the trivial
ones
◦ Identify and prioritise the measures required to
comply with all relevant statutory provisions
◦ Remain appropriate to the nature of the work and
valid over a reasonable period of time

6.  Your planning records should provide for :
◦ Identifying hazards and assessing risk, and deciding how
they can be eliminated or controlled
◦ Complying with the Health and Safety laws that apply to
the business
◦ Agreeing health and safety targets
◦ Design of tasks, processes, equipment, products and
services, safe systems of work
◦ Procedure to deal with serious and imminent danger
◦ Co-operation with neighbours, and/or subcontractors
◦ Setting standards against which performance can be
measured

7.  Standards help build a positive culture and
control risks. They set out what people will do
to deliver the policy and control risk. They
should identify who does what, when and with
what results.
 Standards must be:
◦ Measurable
◦ Achievable
◦ Realistic

8.  Statements such as:
◦ ‘Staff must be trained’ are difficult to measure if you
don’t know exactly what ‘trained’ means and who is
to do the work.
◦ ‘All machines will be guarded’ is difficult to achieve
if there is no measure of the adequacy of the
guarding.

9.  Hazard is the potential to cause harm
◦ Electricity is a high hazard
◦ Chemicals can be a medium hazard
◦ Using a ladder can be low hazardous
 Risk is the likelihood to cause harm
◦ Not switching off the electricity supply when
carrying out maintenance would be a high risk of
electrocution
◦ Touching chemicals without protective clothing may
cause a medium risk of skin damage
◦ Using a ladder without a harness could mean a low
risk of falling from height

12.  Working at Height  Conveyor Belts
 Manual Handling  Portable Electrical
 Slips, Trips and Falls Equipment
 Falling Objects  Fire
 Operation of Lift Trucks  Hazardous Substances
 Traffic Movement  Lighting
 Electrical Equipment  Hygiene/Comfort
 Mechanical Equipment  Compressed Air
 Noise  Visitors
 Hot Works  Dust

13.  Dermatitis  Body parts trapped
 Eye Irritation/Strain  Cuts
 Breathing Difficulties  Back pain
 Burns  Fractures
 Being Trapped  Strains/Sprains
 Shocks  Over Exposure
Don’t forget to look at both short and long-term hazards!
Asbestos
It could take over 20 years before it kills you

14.  Isolating electricity  Goggles provided and worn
 Extinguishers provided  Ear defenders provided and
 Spillages cleared worn
 Trained and competent  Respiratory equipment
workers provided and worn
 240volt tools  Gloves provided and worn
 Regular testing and  Hard hats provided and worn
maintenance  Authorised users
 Guarding provided  Drinking water
 Safe working loads not  Heating or protective
exceeded clothing
 Floors maintained  Restricted access
 Good housekeeping  Good Supervision

15.  Prioritise – deal with high risk hazards first
 Assign someone who has the adequate
authority to carry out the control measure
 Put a realistic deadline on when the action
must be completed
 Check that the action has been completed
 Record all of the above

16.  Don’t forget to refer to the HSE website and
check up on the guidelines www.hse.gov.uk/risk
 Remember, some are guidelines and some are
requirements
 It’s easy to get carried away with
recommendations and costs!
 Successful Health and Safety Management
www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg65.pdf
 Management of Health and Safety at Work
www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l21.pdf