So, you hear “risk assessment” and your palms get a bit sweaty, and your heart starts pounding. Sounds like something out of a health and safety horror story – clipboards, checklists, paperwork for days, right? Calm down. It’s honestly not that bad, and it needn’t be stressful. In the UK, you’ve got to do it because the law says so – but it’s more about basic decency and not letting someone break their neck on your watch. That’s got to be a win-win.
Let’s cut the jargon and keep it simple.
Why Even Bother? (Well, there is the Law…)
Look, UK law (Management of Health and Safety at Work Regs 1999—don’t worry, you won’t get tested after this) says you must do a risk assessment. Five or more staff? Then you must write it down; I never understood the reasoning behind that – just write it down anyway, and you can’t be wrong. Skip it and you’re asking for fines or worse. And, you know, someone could get hurt. Doesn’t take a genius to see that’s not a good look. Plus, caring about your people is actually normal and makes work culture better. For general risk assessments, there isn’t a mandatory way to set them out. You just have to make sure you don’t miss any significant hazards, and you must reduce the risk to a level that’s “as low as reasonably practicable”.
“As low as reasonably practicable” just means that if the cost of implementing a particular measure to remove risk completely outweigh the risk itself, you don’t need to do it, so you implement measures to reduce the risk to an acceptable level. If the risk level remains high, it clearly is not acceptable. No-one goes to work to be at risk of getting hurt, or worse still, to actually get hurt! This sometimes takes a while for newcomers to health and safety to get their heads around, so do some research or get professional advice.
Risk Assessment in Five Not-So-Difficult Steps
Think of this as a never-ending loop. You’ll update it. And update it again. Believe me, you really will.
1. Spot the Hazards: What could go wrong? Walk around like it’s your first day. Notice stuff.
- Slippery floors, wires everywhere, uneven ground. Anything.
- People lifting boxes and pretending they’re stronger than they are.
- Nasty chemicals—cleaners, dust, fumes (COSHH is the rulebook here).
- Machines, tools, electrics—are they up to scratch?
- Fire stuff: blocked exits, stuff that could go up in flames.
- Angry people: is your workplace a drama magnet?
- Mental health: stress, bullying, overwork (don’t pretend it doesn’t exist).
- Computer setups: bad chairs, neck pain, dodgy monitors.
- Lone workers: anyone working solo and out of sight?
Ask your teams what bothers them – their moaning could save someone’s skin. Don’t just guess.
2. Who Could Get Hurt, and How?
For every hazard, who’s in the firing line? Staff, visitors, the public off the street? And what’s the worst that could happen?
Example: Huge puddle.
Who? Literally anyone.
How? Slips, trips, ambulance rides.
3. What are you going to do about it?
Be realistic. How likely is it to go wrong, and how bad will it be if it does?
Risk = chances of harm x how bad the harm might be.
– Can you just remove the risk? (Best option, always.)
– If not, how can you make it safer?
Stuff you can do:
- Engineering: change the setup—barriers, guards, handrails.
- Admin stuff: rules, training, reminders, rotating jobs so no one loses their mind.
- PPE: helmets, gloves, goggles—last resort, not your first move.
4. Write It Down
What’s the risk, who’s at risk, what’s already in place, what else you’ll do, and who’s going to do it.
Five or more people? You must write this stuff up. Fewer? Still smart to have it in writing. Otherwise, how will you remember it?
Include:
- Significant hazards you found.
- Who’s at risk.
- What you’re doing about it.
- Any “to do” items.
- Who’s in charge of the “to do.”
- Dates: when you checked, when you’ll check again.
Keep it simple. You can find loads of templates online, or you can make your own. Or better still, if you don’t have competent help (although the law requires this), you can hire a competent person to do it for you.
5. Review & Refresh
This isn’t a “do it once and forget it” thing. And a risk assessment isn’t just a piece of paper. Stuff changes. People mess up. Laws change. New gear arrives.
Review whenever:
- Something goes wrong (accident or Near Miss).
- Something in the workplace changes.
- New info about risks pops up.
- The law moves the goalposts.
At the very least, check it once a year. More if your people are accident-prone.
Other Risk Assessments
What I’ve described above are general risk assessments. However, some things require different formats and assessment methods. These include:
COSHH assessments. These are for hazardous substances, or potentially hazardous substances.
Workplace Transport Risk Assessment. This should be in a more specific format.
Manual Handling assessments. If your workers have potentially hazardous lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, or repetitive movement tasks, these must be assessed differently too.
There are other assessment types that require specialist knowledge and skills, such as Fire, Legionella, Asbestos, and several others. If you’re not competent to carry these out, get a specialist contractor to do it for you. Make sure you check they’re competent first though!
Who’s going to do this? Make sure they know their stuff and are competent (also a legal requirement) – training, experience, knowledge; not just “Dave from HR who’s free on Fridays.”
Ask your people: your staff are the experts on their work and they know what’s dodgy. Actually listen to them.
Some jobs have extra risks—if you’re in a high-risk sector, dig deeper into the rules.
That’s it. It’s not rocket science, just common sense on paper. Or electronically. Don’t freak out. You’ve got this.