Why do you need risk assessment?
You must carry out and maintain regular risk assessments under health and safety law whether you are a big business, medium sized or small organisation. A properly conducted risk assessment helps minimise the possibility of your work activities harming the environment or those who work in, or visit, your organisation.
The principle of risk assessment has become the cornerstone of health and safety management and when undertaken the results are incorporated into your action plan allowing you to risk manage the health and safety of your work activities.
Carrying out risk assessments yourself can take time and some areas might require specialist knowledge. You may not be sure that the exercise is really complete and meets the requirements of the regulations.
How can Envex help with risk assessments
We can arrange for a qualified safety practitioner to carry out risk assessments on your behalf. Our assessment may take the form of a general risk review, or may involve a more detailed analysis of a specific hazard.
The more common subjects that give rise to an assessment duty are:
General risk assessment
- Display Screen Equipment (VDU’s) & Workstations Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992
- Risk assessment for lifting & carrying Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992
> More information on manual handling.- Risk assessment for hazardous substances Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002
- Risk assessment for workplace and lifting equipment Provision & Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
- Risk assessment for lifting equipment Lifting Operations & Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998
- Vibration assessments The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005
- Workplace Noise assessments, The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 .
> More information on noise risk assessments.- Asbestos risk assessment, Control of Asbestos Regulations 2005.
> More information on asbestos risk management.- Legionella risk assessment in water systems L8 Legionnaires’ disease: The control of legionella bacteria in water systems.
> More information on legionella risk management.
Other regulations that may be applicable to the process are:
• Workplace(Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992
• Personal Protective Equipment 1992
• Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981
• Construction (Design and Management) (Amendment) Regulations 2005
For more information on risk assessment > contact us
Frequent questions about risk assessments
What are the legal requirements?
Several regulations contain a specific requirement for a risk assessment to be carried out by a competent person. Examples are the regulations to do with VDU work, use of hazardous substances, work in noisy environments, and where hazardous manual handling takes place.
In addition, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 act as a "catch-all", and call for an assessment of all risks arising from every work activity.
Assessments must be "suitable and sufficient" i.e. they must correctly identify the hazards and quantify the risks. Except in the most simple of cases, they must be recorded.
At least once! Thereafter they need to be regularly reviewed. Re-assessment may be needed when a workplace or task is altered, before new materials or processes are used, or after any incident that throws doubt on the validity of the original findings.
This varies according to the type of assessment. For example, about 50 VDU workstation assessments could be carried out in three days, whereas a noise assessment will generally require a day on site and a day for writing up the report. ed, or after any incident that throws doubt on the validity of the original findings.
If you already use a particular report format, or have something in mind, we will work to your own design. Alternatively we will present the assessment in the form that we have found to be most suitable.
For more information on how Envex can help you see > Appointed safety advisor service