LTB 139/17 HSE Guide – Risk Assessment, A Brief Guide to Controlling Risks in the Workplace (INDG163)
No. 139/2017
3rd March 2017
Our Ref: EX5/17
HSE Guide – Risk Assessment, A Brief Guide to Controlling Risks in the Workplace (INDG163)
To: All Branches
Dear Colleagues,
The HSE Risk Assessment leaflet INDG163 Risk Assessment, a brief guide to controlling risks in the workplace’, is a revised updated version of leaflets first produced back in 1992. The summary guidance’ aims to help you identify, assess and controlhealth and safety risksassociated withworkplacehazards – the guidance replaces the very well know and widely used Five Steps to Risk Assessment’.
This leaflet is mainly aimed at employers, managers, safety advisors and others with responsibility for health and safety, and will also be useful to TU Safety Representatives.
The new guidance makes clear that significant findings need to be recorded and emphasises the importance of controlling the risks identified. The guidance states that employers should identify the hazards, think about who might be harmed, evaluate the risks, record significant findings and review the risk assessments periodically.
If the Five steps to risk assessment’ has been used in the past to carry out or review risk assessment that’s fine. Employers must review risk assessment if they are no longer valid or if there are any significant changes or if there have been any accidents or near misses.
As part of managing the health and safety of any organisation or business, employers and managers must control the risks in the workplace. To do this they need to think about what might cause harm to the workforce and others, including visitors, the public etc and decide whether reasonable and suitable steps are being taken to prevent harm. This is what risk assessment is and it is something all employers are required by law to carry out and record it. Only very small employers of five employees or fewer don’t have to write anything down.
A risk assessment is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork,but it is about identifying sensible measures to control the risks in the workplace or workplaces and a workplace is any place where a worker works or frequents during the course of their employment, including out on the streets where our Outdoor working members go. Risk assessment help managers decide whether the organisation has adequately covered all that needs to be considered.
When undertaking Risk Assessments, employers and managers need tp think about how accidents and ill health could happen and concentrate on real risks – those that are most likely and which will cause the most harm – then consult Safety Reps and Experts if need be to ensure the Risk assessments are got right, producing Safe Working Methods and Systems.
For some risks, other regulations require particular control measures. The risk assessment can help identify where to look in respect of certain risks and the particular control measures in more detail. These specific control measures can then be considered as part of, or an extension of, generic overall risk assessments.
A pdf copy version of HSG(INDG163) is attached.
Yours sincerely
Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer