Risk assessment
A recorded look at what could cause harm in a task, how badly and how likely, and the controls that reduce the risk to an acceptable level.
A risk assessment answers five questions: what are the hazards, who could be harmed and how, what are you already doing about it, what more needs doing, and who will do it by when. It is then reviewed when the work, the people or the conditions change, and after anything goes wrong. The HSE's guidance calls for it to be suitable and sufficient, which means proportionate to the risk: a paragraph for a low-risk task, several pages for a lift over a live road.
Most construction risk assessments score the risk before and after controls on a matrix of likelihood against severity, commonly five by five, giving a number from one to twenty-five. The number is not the point; the point is that the scoring makes you think about how the control changes the outcome, and that the residual score after controls is one you are prepared to sign your name to. Scores over a certain level (often twelve or more) should not be accepted as residual risk without a senior decision.
The commonest failings are generic assessments that do not name the site or the task, controls that are aspirations rather than actions ("ensure operatives are careful"), and assessments that nobody on the gang has seen. The commonest strength is a two-page assessment written by the supervisor who will run the job and briefed to the people who will do it.
Where it comes from
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 reg.3 (assessment) and reg.4 (principles of prevention, Schedule 1).
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 s.2 and s.3: the duties the assessment serves.
- Specific assessment duties in COSHH 2002 reg.6, the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 reg.5, the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 reg.5, the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 reg.4 and the Work at Height Regulations 2005 reg.6.
Questions people ask
Do I need a written risk assessment if I have fewer than five employees?
You need to do the assessment; you need not write it down. In construction you will write it down anyway, because the principal contractor asks for it and because a written one is the only kind you can prove happened.
How often should a risk assessment be reviewed?
When anything significant changes: the task, the people, the plant, the weather, the site. And after any incident or near miss. An annual review is a backstop, not a schedule.
Risk assessment, handled on a phone
SiteLynx puts the RAMS, permits, inspections, audits, plant checks and records behind every term in this glossary on the crew's phones, signed on site, with a PDF at the end. 14 days free, no card.
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