What is a Risk Assessment?

A risk assessment is the process of identifying hazards in your workplace or work activities, identifying who could be harmed, evaluating the likelihood and severity of harm those hazards could cause, and deciding what measures need to be put in place to eliminate or reduce that risk to an acceptable level. It is one of the most fundamental tools in health and safety management, but also one of the most misunderstood.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 Regulation 3 is where the legal requirement to conduct risk assessments exists.

To understand risk assessment properly, it helps to be clear about the distinction between a hazard and a risk:

A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause harm — a wet floor, a piece of machinery, a chemical, a ladder.
A risk is the severity X likelihood that the hazard will actually cause harm in the circumstances in which it is used or encountered. A trailing cable on the floor is a hazard, if the cable is beneath a desk the risk is low, if that cable is at the top of some busy stairs, the potential severity and likelihood has greatly increased = greater risk.

A risk assessment works through a structured process: identify the hazards, decide who might be harmed and how, evaluate the risks and decide on precautions, record your findings and implement them, and then review and update the assessment as circumstances change or over time. In practice, a good risk assessment does not simply list problems — it provides practical solutions that your workforce can actually implement. Risk assessments should be completed by competent people, the HSE constantly see risk assessments which are not suitable and sufficient so its important to get them right.

You may sometimes see this matrix which helps assess risk

Risk assessments are not supposed to be bureaucratic exercises designed to fill filing cabinets. When done properly, they are a genuine management tool that helps you protect your workers, reduce accidents and near misses, satisfy legal obligations, and demonstrate to clients and regulators that you take safety seriously.

When considering how to reduce risk, you should apply the hierarchy of controls:

At LESH, we produce risk assessments that are clear, practical and specific to your actual working activities. We do not deal in generic templates that bear no relation to how your business actually operates. We take the time to understand what you do, how you do it, and who might be at risk — and we produce assessments that your team will actually find useful.

We offer a range of health and safety Competent Person packages.

You can download a Free Risk Assessment Template From LESH