This document provides guidance on conducting risk assessments through a 5-step process: 1) identify hazards, 2) identify those affected, 3) evaluate risks and controls, 4) record findings, and 5) review regularly. It outlines how to recognize hazards, consider who may be harmed and how, determine existing and needed controls, and document the process. Key steps include walking work areas to find hazards, asking employees for input, and comparing controls to good practices. The goal of risk assessment is to prevent harm through reasonable precautions.

1. Risk Assessment
Training
By Brian Larkin. www.brianlarkinsafety.com

2. Risk Assessment
 What is a risk assessment ?
 A risk assessment is nothing more than a careful examination
of what, in your work or activities, could cause harm to
people, so that you can weigh up whether you have taken
enough precautions or should do more to prevent harm. The
aim is to make sure that no one gets hurt or becomes ill.

3. 5 Steps
 Five steps to risk assessment
 Identify the hazards
 Decide who might be harmed and how
 Evaluate the risks and decide on precaution
 Record your findings and implement them
 Review your assessment and update if necessary

4. 1, Identify the hazards
 First you need to work out how people could be harmed.
When you work in a place everyday it is easy to overlook
some hazards, so here are some tips to help you identify the
ones that matter:


5. Identify the hazards
Walk around your workplace and look at what could
reasonably be expected to cause harm.

6. Identify the hazards
Ask your employees or their representatives what they think.
They may have noticed things that are not immediately
obvious to you.

7. Identify the hazards
 If you need to brush up on what is expected of you when
conducting a risk assessment you can visit the HSE website.
HSE publishes practical guidance on where hazards occur
and how to control them. There is much information on the
hazards that might affect your business.

8. Identify the hazards
If you are a member of a trade association, contact them.
Many produce very helpful guidance.

9. Identify the hazards
Check manufacturers’ instructions or data sheets for
chemicals and equipment as they can be very helpful in
spelling out the hazards and putting them in their true
perspective.

10. Identify the hazards
Have a look back at your accident and ill-health records –
these often help to identify the less obvious hazards.

11. Identify the hazards
Remember to think about long-term hazards to health (eg
high levels of noise or exposure to harmful substances) as well
as safety hazards.

12. Hazard

13. Hazard

14. Hazard

15. Hazard
 Discuss hazards in the workplace with the class

16. Decide who might be harmed and
how
 Step 2:
 For each hazard you need to be clear about who might be
harmed; it will help you identify the best way of managing the
risk. That doesn’t mean listing everyone by name, but rather
identifying groups of people (eg ‘people working in the
storeroom’ or ‘passers-by’).

17. Decide who might be harmed and
how
 Remember:
 some workers have particular requirements, eg new and
young workers , migrant workers , new or expectant
mothers and people with disabilities may be at particular
risk.

18. Decide who might be harmed and
how
 Extra thought will be needed for some hazards;
 cleaners, visitors, contractors, maintenance workers etc, who
may not be in the workplace all the time;
 members of the public, if they could be hurt by your activities;

19. Decide who might be harmed and
how
 If you share your workplace, you will need to think about how
your work affects others present, as well as how their work
affects your staff – talk to them; and
 Ask your staff if they can think of anyone you may have
missed.

20. Decide who might be harmed and
how
 In each case, identify how they might be harmed, i.e. what
type of injury or ill health might occur. For example, ‘shelf
stackers may suffer back injury from repeated lifting of
boxes’.

21. Who might be harmed

22. Who might be harmed

23. Evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
 Step 3:
 Having spotted the hazards, you then have to decide what to
do about them. The law requires you to do everything
‘reasonably practicable’ to protect people from harm. You can
work this out for yourself, but the easiest way is to compare
what you are doing with good practice.

24. Evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
 First, look at what you’re already doing, think about what
controls you have in place and how the work is organised.
Then compare this with the good practice and see if there’s
more you should be doing to bring yourself up to standard.
 In asking yourself this, consider:

25. Evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
 Can I get rid of the hazard altogether?
 If not, how can I control the risks so that harm is unlikely?

26. Evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
 When controlling risks, apply the principles below, if possible
in the following order:
 Try a less risky option (eg switch to using a less hazardous
chemical);

27. Evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
 Prevent access to the hazard (eg by guarding);

28. Evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
 Organise work to reduce exposure to the hazard (eg put
barriers between pedestrians and traffic);

29. Evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
 Issue personal protective equipment (eg clothing, footwear,
goggles etc); and

30. Evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
 Provide welfare facilities (eg first aid and washing facilities for
removal of contamination).

31. Evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
 Improving health and safety need not cost a lot. For instance,
placing a mirror on a dangerous blind corner to help prevent
vehicle accidents is a low-cost precaution considering the
risks. Failure to take simple precautions can cost you a lot
more if an accident does happen.

32. Evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
 Involve staff, so that you can be sure that what you propose
to do will work in practice and won’t introduce any new
hazards.

33. Evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions

34. HSE EXAMPLE,
BODY SHOP ASSESSMANT
 What are the hazards?
 Vehicle movements
 Who might be harmed and how?
 Workers and customers might suffer serious injury if struck
by a vehicle (including a vehicle parked un-braked and/or un-
chocked and in gear, and then started up from outside the
vehicle).

35. HSE EXAMPLE,
BODY SHOP ASSESSMANT
 What are you already doing?
 Safe parking provided for customers
 Marked walkways for pedestrians
 Parked vehicles are braked or chocked when on vehicle lifts,
jacks, axle stands or on sloping ground.
 Engines always started with brakes on and in in neutral gear
and by someone sitting in drivers seat.

36. Do you need to do anything else
to control this risk?
NO FURTHER ACTION
HSE EXAMPLE,
BODY SHOP ASSESSMANT.
End with regard to the hazard identified
Note other hazards were noted in the example.

37. Record your findings and
implement them
 Step 4:
 Putting the results of your risk assessment into practice will
make a difference when looking after people and your
business.

38. Record your findings and
implement them
 Write down the results of your risk assessment, and share
them with your staff.
 If you have fewer than five employees you do not have to
write anything down.

39. Record your findings and
implement them
 When writing down your results, keep it simple, for example
‘Tripping over rubbish: bins provided, staff instructed, weekly
housekeeping checks’, or ‘Fume from welding: local exhaust
ventilation used and regularly checked’.

40. Record your findings and
implement them
 The HSENI does not expect a risk assessment to be perfect,
but they want it to be suitable and sufficient. As illustrated by
their example risk assessments covered here, you need to
be able to show that:

41. Record your findings and
implement them
 A proper check was made;
 You asked who might be affected;
 You dealt with all the obvious significant hazards, taking into
account the number of people who could be involved;
 The precautions are reasonable, and the remaining risk is
low; and
 You involved your staff or their representatives in the
process.

42. Review your risk assessment and
update if necessary
 Step 5: Few workplaces stay the same. Sooner or later, you
will bring in new equipment, substances and procedures that
could lead to new hazards. It makes sense therefore, to
review what you are doing on an on-going basis.

43. Review your risk assessment and
update if necessary
 Look at your risk assessment and think about whether there
have been any changes? Are there improvements you still
need to make? Have your workers spotted a problem? Have
you learnt anything from accidents or near misses? Make
sure your risk assessment stays up to date.

44. Review your risk assessment and
update if necessary
 When you are running a business it’s all too easy to forget
about reviewing your risk assessment – until something has
gone wrong and it’s too late. During the year, if there is a
significant change, don’t wait: check your risk assessment
and where necessary, amend it. If possible, it is best to think
about the risk assessment when you’re planning your change
– that way you leave yourself more flexibility.

45. Lets discuss some situations
 You are informed that there is a 5 minute task to be
completed on the roof of the building.
 You are asked to conduct a risk assessment

46. 5 minute task

47. Where do you start
 Start by identifying the hazards.
 Work at height is the big hazard here.
 You need to get all the information regarding the task.
 For example

48. The task
 What is the purpose of this task. OK needs to be done
 How will access and egress be achieved. Cherry picker
 Who is going to go on to the roof, training ?
 Is this roof capable of taking a persons weight. Yes you are
told.
 Are there roof lights . Check. Yes there are.
 Is there edge protection of a parapet to prevent falls over the
edge. Yes you can see.
 Are the roof lights “man safe” No you are told.
 You start to get worried at this stage.

49. What to do in a case like this.
 Go through your risk assessment 5 step format.
 Where you identify a hazard, apply control measures that you
have in place for dealing with that hazard.
 If the control measures are not sufficient to protect those that
could be harmed, then write down what extra controls will be
necessary to be put in place to reduce the risk to an
acceptable level

50. 5 minute task on the roof
 This kind of task is not something that can be completed
without a great deal of careful planning.
 My advice in this case would be to get a competent
contractor to execute the task

51. New machine and process
 You are asked to complete a risk assessment on a new
machine and process.
 Back to step one, Identify the hazards.
 Look at all the operations that can be conducted with the
machine.
 Some machines have different programmes.
 Observe the operative working the machine.

52. New machine and process
 Look for rotating parts.
 Look for nip points
 Look to see if the operators hands, clothing , jewellery or hair
could get “drawn in”
 Look at the product that is being put through the machine.
 Are there parts that could grip or catch the operator.
 Look to see if the machine ejects parts of the product.
 Look at the area around the machine.
 Are there other hazards you can see.

53. Rotating parts, nip points

54. Drawn in example

55. Surrounding Area.
 Look for electricity
 Look for fork lift trucks and or other vehicles.
 Look for chemicals associated with the task.
 Look to see if the operative uses his/her mobile phone.
 Look to see if the noise or vibration levels seem excessive.
 Look to see what interaction there is with other processes
 Is there a manual handling hazard.
 Are controls accessible, emergency stop.
 If guarding is opened or removed, does the machine stop.

56. New machine and process
 What are the maintenance requirements
 Has the operator received post training
 What other training has been conducted
 Is the machine complicated
 Would it be easy to make a mistake
 Is there a pre start check list completion procedure
 Is there a second shift, is there a night shift
 Will there be any “hand over” requirement.
 Is the operator classed as a young person (under 18)

57. New machine and process
 As you write down the hazards and risks you consider and
evaluate, write down the control measures that you know to
be in place and the control measures that you feel will be
required to reduce any risk to a acceptable level.
 Use a formula to evaluate the risk.

58. Example Evaluation Formula

59. TATA Steel Formula
Assess the risk associated with each hazard
using the scoring system set out on the
following slides.
Calculate the score both with and without
controls to indicate how effective the controls
are.

60. TATA Steel Formula
 "0" No injury or illness, property damage or
 other loss up to £500
 "2" Minor injury or illness, property
 damage or other loss up to £5000
 "4" Lost time injury or illness without
 permanent disability, PD/OL to £10k
 "6" Permanent disability or fatality,
 PD / OL over £10k

61. TATA Steel Formula
 "-1" Low chance of loss occurring
 "0" Moderate chance of loss occurring
 "1" High chance of loss occurring
 "1" Task is done less than daily
 "2" Task is done a few times per day
 "3" Task is done many times per day

 High. “H” 8, 9, 10
 Med “M” 4, 5, 6, 7
 Low “L” 0, 1, 2, 3

62. Exercise. What is the Hazard?

63. What are your options.
Eliminate the Hazard = A I Man

64. Who might be harmed ?????

65. Guard the Hazard

66. Place warnings. Signage

67. PPE

68. Run

69. Discussion

70. End of Session
 Thank You