Hierarchy of control

ERICPD: eliminate, reduce, isolate, control, PPE, discipline

The order in which controls are considered: eliminate the hazard, reduce it, isolate people from it, control it with procedures, protect the individual with PPE, and enforce with supervision, in that order and not the reverse.

The general principles of prevention in the Management Regulations, and the specific hierarchies in the Work at Height, COSHH and Manual Handling regulations, all say the same thing: get rid of the hazard first, and reach for PPE last. Construction remembers it as ERIC PD: Eliminate (design out the work at height, pre-cut off site), Reduce (a lower-vibration tool, a less hazardous product, less time), Isolate (edge protection, guards, exclusion zones, enclosures), Control (safe systems of work, permits, training, supervision, job rotation), PPE (the last layer, protecting one person at a time and failing silently), and Discipline (rules and their enforcement). A risk assessment that jumps straight to "wear gloves and goggles" has skipped the four levels that actually reduce the risk.

The hierarchy is also the order an inspector, an assessor or a tribunal expects to see in the assessment: why could the hazard not be eliminated, why not reduced, what isolates people from it, what controls the residual, and only then what PPE is worn. Writing the assessment in that order produces better controls and a better document.

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