to see the

full template
click here

Risk Assessment Checklist

 to see the
full template
click here
Risk Assessment Checklist
As we all know, risk assessments are a legal necessity and if you employ five or more people, they
must be documented. So, how do you make sure yours are done correctly to pass a Health & Safety
inspection and keep everyone on your premises safe? It’s easy - just follow these five, simple steps:

In 2020/21* in Great Britain:

• There were 2,929 notices issued by HSE • £26.9 million in fines resulting in prosecutions taken

1. IDENTIFY THE HAZARDS

When identifying hazards, don’t just rely on your own knowledge, In 2020/21*
because you can’t be in multiple places at once. Speak to trade in Great Britain:
associations, employees and anyone else who directly carries out work
for you and ask them what hazards they come across in their day to 142 workers killed
• 
day. You should also look back at all your accident handbooks for at work
hazard trends, operating manuals and instructions, as well as consulting
with a Health & Safety professional to support you with the process. • 1 .7 million workers
suffering from work-
related ill health
2. A S S E S S W H O ’ S AT R I S K
470,000 workers
• 
An obvious factor, but one that’s often forgotten! Make sure you include suffering from
everyone that could be affected by the hazard. For example, a tree work-related
surgeon is at risk of harm when carrying out their job but so is the musculoskeletal
general public if they’re cutting down trees in a public park. disorders

441,000 workers
• 
sustained a non-fatal
3. E VA L U AT E T H E R I S K injury

Once you’ve got your list of hazards together, it’s time to put them in
645,000 workers
• 
priority order by looking at how likely the hazards are to happen and if
suffered from a work-
they were to happen, how much harm they could cause.
related illness caused
For example, if you’ve got an employee working from a poorly erected or made worse by the
scaffold with no handrail, on the fourteenth story of a block of flats, the effects of the COVID
risk could potentially be fatal. Therefore, this would be a high priority pandemic
and you’d need to put in some immediate control pleasures in place
to prevent this.. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work 12,000 lung disease
• 
Regulations 1999, you’re required, as an employer, to do everything deaths each year
reasonably practicable to protect your employees from harm. which are estimated
to be linked to
As well as putting your hazards in priority order and making sure the past exposure at
right control measures are in place, you should revisit your current work, primarily to
hazards to check they still apply to your business. If they do and are chemicals or dust
still deemed as ‘high priority’, can you change the process of managing
them so they’re less of a risk?
4. R EC O R D YO U R F I N D I N G S
This is what an HSE inspector will ask to see when they
visit your site – proof you’ve actually carried out a risk
assessment. The document itself should include everything
outlined in steps one, two, and three and if you’re still unsure
about what to include or how the document should look, you
can download one of our business-specific templates.

5. R E V I E W, R E V I E W, R E V I E W
Your risk assessment is a living document and changes with
the business, so it’ll need revisiting on a routine basis but also
when there’s:

A change in occupancy in the business

New machinery or tools introduced to the business

Changes to Health & Safety legislation

Structural change to yours or a neighbouring premises

 hanges that are outside of your control but affect your

C
business such as the COVID pandemic for example

AT T E N T I O N :
MOST COMMON
WORKPL ACE RISKS
With workplaces occupying five or
more employees, according to the
HSE*, the most common workplace
risks are:

1. Slips, trips or falls on the same level

2. Handling/lifting/carrying

3. Struck by an object

4. Falls from a height

5. Acts of violence
*HSE: Health & Safety Statistics 2017/18

Find out how we can support you with completing your risk assessments with our Safety
First package: https://hsdirect.co.uk/health-and-safety-software/safety-first-package
How we
can help?
We understand how vital it is for your business to have
the correct documents in place to meet legal compliance
obligations. Please click here to download our completed Risk
Assessment template.

Our team of experts can also provide you with their specialist
advice based on the latest government guidelines to help you
keep your people safe and your business on the right side of the
law. Simply give us a call on 0114 244 4461 and our team will be
happy to discuss your business needs or click here to book a
call-back at a time that suits you.’