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HEALTH & SAFETY
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RISK ASSESSMENT
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GUIDANCE NOTES
Guidance on Risk Assessment
INDEX:
Why do we need to do risk assessments?
What is a risk assessment?
Who is supposed to carry out risk assessments?
How are assessments carried out?
What if I’ve already got a good system for carrying out risk assessments?
When are assessments needed?
What sort of hazards should I be considering?
What sort of controls should I be considering?
What help is available?
How do I fill in the University’s General Risk Assessment Form?
Where do the assessments go after they are completed?
How often do risk assessments need to be reviewed?
How does the risk assessment process fit in with our School/Professional Service
documentation?
Please note – all relevant and related Risk Assessment forms; guidance notes;
website links; H&S Individuals contact information etc. detailed in this
document are available from the ‘Risk Assessment Resource Section’ of the
Health & Safety Intranet (Select ‘Working at BU’ from the Staff Portal
Homepage, and then select ‘Health, Safety & Wellbeing’.
Why do we need to do risk assessments?
Risk assessments are used to reduce the number and severity of accidents by assessing
the risks beforehand and introducing appropriate prevention measures.
The process of risk assessment is also a useful way of targeting resources i.e. spending
time or money on reducing the highest risks first.
It’s also required by law. The Management Of Health And Safety At Work Regulations
(the ‘Management Regulations’) 1999 require suitable and sufficient recorded assessment
of the risks to health and safety to the University’s employees and to anyone else who
may be affected by our activities.
This law is intended to apply to all significant risks, however for certain activities (e.g.
those involving exposure to hazardous substances) more specific regulations have been
made and compliance with these will mean that the Management Regulations have also
been complied with.
This guidance is applicable to most ‘general risks’. However, if you are interested in
carrying out specific risk assessments (e.g. for exposure to harmful substances; manual
handling; use of display screen equipment; exposure to noise etc.) then you are advised
in the first instance to contact your Health & Safety Coordinator. They will then liaise with
the University’s Competent Assessor for that activity and/or the Health, Safety &
Wellbeing Team to discuss how this should be carried out. Details of our ‘Competent
Persons’ are given in the University’s Health & Safety Policy.
What is a risk assessment?
A risk assessment is nothing more than a careful examination of what, in your work,
could cause harm to people so that you can weigh up whether you have taken enough
precautions or should do more to prevent harm. The aim is to make sure that no one
gets hurt or becomes ill due to work activities.
The risk assessment process consists of the following steps:
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identifying hazards
deciding who might be harmed (and how)
assessing the risks from those hazards (i.e. the possibility that the hazard will actually
result in harm or loss)
considering whether further action is needed to eliminate or reduce the risks
identified and what would be effective, reasonable and manageable
and implementing and maintaining some control measures and programming in a
regular review of the assessments
Who is supposed to carry out risk assessments?
Like all other health and safety duties at Bournemouth University, the overall duty to
ensure that risk assessments are carried out lies with the Dean or Professional Services
Director and this is specifically written into our general Health & Safety Policy.
The tasks themselves will clearly need to be delegated down through line management.
Line managers are accountable for ensuring that the person(s) given responsibility for
overseeing or carrying out risk assessment actually discharge their duties.
Ideally, risk assessments should be organised by the person in charge of that activity.
However, the best assessments are carried out as a team effort and should, wherever
possible, include those that may be affected e.g. a machine operator.
Some risk assessments will require someone with technical expertise (e.g. working with a
complex machine), whilst for many assessments this is not needed (e.g. carrying out a
general office risk assessment).
To quote from the HSE’s ‘5 Steps to Risk Assessment’ leaflet: “In most firms in the
commercial, service and light industrial sectors, the hazards are few and simple.
Checking them is common sense, but necessary”.
If you are struggling to carry out assessments then the University’s Health, Safety &
Wellbeing Team can give you advice.
Occasionally there may be cases where the responsibilities are not clear-cut. If there is
confusion as to who is responsible then this needs to be discussed and clarified with your
Dean or Director and with the advice of the Health, Safety & Wellbeing Team.
How are assessments carried out?
Use the University’s General Risk Assessment Form for all risks except hazardous
substances, display screen equipment and manual handling (specific forms are available
for these). If everyone uses this form it will make it easier for others to locate the
information they need within each form and will ensure consistency.
It is recommended that you walk around the workplace and look afresh as what could
reasonably be expected to cause harm.
Gather information from as many different sources as you can e.g. look through your
accident records, speak to the employees about the work and any near-misses, check to
see if there are any instruction manuals and whether people are following the
recommended precautions. Where the work has already started, try to look at this in
practice wherever possible as more hazards and risks may come to light due to factors
that may not be noticed from carrying out an assessment away from the activity.
Ignore trivial risks and those arising from routine activities associated with life in general
and not normally thought of as being of concern. Look for significant hazards, which
could result in serious harm or affect several people. Getting bogged down in trivia will
make the process unworkable: try to stick to reasonably foreseeable hazards.
Risk assess the activity with its present controls (if any), then re-assess if action is to be
taken and after further controls are put in place.
What if I’ve already got a good system for carrying out risk assessments?
It is recognised that certain Schools, Professional Services may have already developed
their own systems and forms or may wish to develop these in the future (e.g. for
assessing particular hazards).
It is the Health, Safety & Wellbeing Teams duty to monitor and audit risk assessments
carried out in relation to the University’s activities, it is necessary for them to be aware of
these systems. This is in order that advice can be given where necessary and to ensure
the quality of risk assessments.
The Health, Safety & Wellbeing Team will not be checking the adequacy of all risk
assessments, rather they will audit these assessments periodically to ensure the
University is complying with its statutory obligations and that general systems of risk
assessment are being used as a tool in accident prevention.
Auditing of risk assessments will take place against the factors outlined in
BS 8800: 1996 so it is expected that any alternative arrangements will be able to reach
this standard in order to be accepted by the University as an alternative to the standard
method provided by the University.
When are assessments needed?
Assessments are needed where risks cannot simply be avoided i.e. they are for so-called
‘residual risks’. Carry out the risk assessment before the work starts wherever possible.
Ideally, you should try to ensure that the risk assessment process is part of workplanning (rather than always waiting for activities to start before carrying out an
assessment). This can help avoid accidents and expensive alterations later e.g. a risk
assessment can help in deciding the proper positioning of work equipment.
It would not be sufficient to risk assess an activity as a substitute for taking action which
could easily avoid that risk. The University is committed in its Policy to following the
General Principles of Prevention outlined below.
General Principles of Prevention
The Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 state in Regulation 4 that
we should use the following principles to guide our implementation of preventive and
protective measures:
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Avoiding risks
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Evaluating the risks which cannot be avoided
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Combating the risks at source (e.g. physical methods rather than signs indicating
danger)
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Adapting the work to the individual, especially as regards the design of workplaces,
the choice of work equipment and the choice of working and production methods,
with a view in particular to alleviating monotonous work and work at a predetermined
work-rate and to reducing their effect on health
•
Adapting to technical progress
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Replacing the dangerous by the non-dangerous or the less dangerous
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Developing a coherent overall prevention policy which covers technology,
organisation of work, working conditions, social relationships and the influence of
factors relating to the working environment
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Giving collective protective measures priority over individual protective measures, and
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Giving appropriate instructions to employee
What help is available?
Initially you should seek the help of your Health & Safety Coordinator and senior
colleagues within your Department.
It is important that the assessments involve the persons who have knowledge of, and are
close to, the activity, as they will know what happens from day-to-day.
The Health, Safety & Wellbeing Team can be contacted for advice and assistance but will
not carry out risk assessments on behalf of Schools or Professional Services.
What sort of hazards should I be considering?
Many people are able to talk about the hazards at work but find it difficult to ‘categorise’
them for the purposes of an assessment. For this reason, the University has a form called
‘Hazard and Activity Trawl Form’. The idea is that this becomes a ‘rough filter’ and a basis
for discussion so that a decision can be made on what hazards need to be more
accurately risk assessed. This form also becomes a record for those hazards that are not
thought to be relevant to your work area.
How do I fill in the University’s General Risk Assessment Form?
A ‘General Risk Assessment form’ is available for risks not specifically related to Manual
Handling, Hazardous Substances & Display Screen Equipment (for which other forms are
used).
On the form there should be plenty of room to type in as much detail as is needed (each
section has a maximum of one page length). If necessary, number your points so that
they can be cross-referenced from one part of the form to another.
The following underlined sections relate to the sections as they appear on the Form:
‘Describe the activity that is being assessed’ :
This could be a specific task e.g. floor cleaning, operation of a machine, maintenance
activities etc. Try not to include too many activities as it will prove harder to assess their
combined risk later - split them up into more manageable steps and do a separate
assessment for each – cross referenced to each other.
‘Location’ :
Give the room number, building or describe the location of the activity.
‘Persons at Potential Risk’ :
When carrying out a risk assessment any person who may be affected by the work that is
being assessed must be identified (including employees, the self-employed, the public
etc.).
Try to consider all persons, even if they have only occasional access. You can group
people in categories if this helps e.g. ‘Students’. This form can also be used to risk assess
an activity carried out by a single person e.g. if they are carrying out particular work or if
they have a disability which requires closer consideration of the risks.
Note that in the ‘General Principles of Prevention’ listed above, you have to give
“collective protective measures priority over individual protective measures”.
This means that if two different assessments produce the same risk rating - but affect
different numbers of people - then measures should be taken to reduce the risk to the
greatest number of people. Therefore it is a good idea to approximate the numbers of
people affected in this section.
‘Potential Hazards’ :
Note: The definition of a HAZARD is: - something with the potential to cause harm.
Identify the hazards in the activity being assessed. Try to think widely and include
anything significant. Remember, this section is to record potential hazards in the absence
of any controls you may have in place (the controls are listed and considered in the next
sections).
If you are struggling to think of hazards or activities you carry out, go through the lists in
the ‘Hazard & Activity Trawl’ document - but bear in mind the lists may not cover all
situations.
Where the risk assessment covers either a field trip or working overseas, the UCEA
documents ‘Guidance on Safety in Fieldwork’ or ‘Health and Safety Guidance when
Working Overseas’ are extremely useful. These can assist in terms of guidance and in
identifying potential risks/hazards inherent with these activities.
The HSE (Health & Safety Executive) website is also a good source of information, and
covers many of the industries or subject matter covered here at BU. Guidance notes can
also provide assistance on the identification of hazards in these particular areas.
‘Any Control Measures Already In Place’ :
Outline the existing measures which are already reducing the risk arising from each of
the hazards listed.
If you have instigated controls in the past but they are no longer effective then do not
count them here: instead, you will have to consider their value again under ‘New Control
Measures to be Considered’ and discuss whether these controls should be better
implemented in the future.
Typical control measures (as examples) include:
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safe design;
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preventing access to the hazard (e.g. guarding);
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written procedures and instructions;
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training & supervision;
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provision of personal protective equipment (e.g. gloves, masks) etc.
Try to avoid using words like ‘be careful’ ‘exercise vigilance’ ‘use common sense’ etc., as
these can mean different things to different people. Instead, describe measures that are
in place that can be demonstrated e.g. ‘persons using the equipment are trained
according to the training plan held by XX’, or ‘all persons using this area are under
constant supervision by XX and the activity cannot proceed without this being in place’.
‘Standards to be Achieved’ :
This section is for you to write in any relevant standards that exist for this activity. You
may need to research this, but the advantage is that if you find a relevant standard it will
save a lot of work formulating your own and may ensure that you are complying with the
law.
Examples include: Regulations, Approved Codes of Practice, other Codes, Industry
Guides, Trade Union Guides, Best Practice Guides, Manufacturers or Suppliers
Instructions. (if in doubt, consult with your Health & Safety Coordinator &/or the
University’s Health, Safety & Wellbeing Team).
‘Estimating the Residual Risk’ :
This is the ‘Risk Assessment’ part for risks that haven’t been fully controlled or
eliminated.
Remember that despite using a ‘rating’ system, risk assessment is not a precise science.
The purpose of using a risk rating method is to be able to judge and compare risks and,
if necessary, prioritise action on the highest risks. In the event of any accident occurring,
the Courts would look to see whether or not the organisation was focusing its efforts on
reducing the highest risks through a risk assessment process.
However, it is necessary to appreciate that there is a high degree of subjectivity inherent
in this process and that it is best used as a tool for comparison within the same risk
assessment team.
Assess the risks arising out of the hazards identified using the criteria set out in the table
provided on page 2 of the form.
When carrying this out consideration must be given to what is reasonably foreseeable in
relation to the identified hazards (e.g. although you might reasonably predict a risk of a
cut to someone’s hand, it would not normally be reasonable to predict that this would
then become septic). You can also consider here the effectiveness of any existing control
measures that reduce the risk.
How to estimate the ‘Residual Risk’:
Choose a category that best describes the degree of harm which could result from the
hazard (e.g. Slightly Harmful, Harmful and Extremely Harmful).
Then select a category indicating what the likelihood is that a person(s) could be harmed
(e.g. Highly Unlikely, Likely or Unlikely).
Note: the ‘Likelihood of Occurrence’ means the likelihood that the hazard will be realised and harm
will result (i.e. not ‘how often does the activity take place’)
Then check the ONE box within the table that matches both of your choices and
corresponds to the words: Trivial, Tolerable, Moderate, Substantial, or Intolerable.
Then take note of the advice below this on the suggested action and timescale.
If the overall risk category is ‘Tolerable’ then the assessment is complete and the
information contained within the assessment should then be disseminated to those
affected.
Controls still need to be maintained as you have stated them in the previous box on the
form. You should also consider any cost-effective ways to reduce the risk still further
(‘cost’ being in terms of money, time or effort).
If the overall risk category is ‘Moderate’, ‘Substantial’ or ‘Intolerable’ then additional
Control Measures are required:
‘New Control Measures to be Considered’ :
Try to avoid reinforcing the status quo. Just because the job’s been done this way for
years, doesn’t mean that this is correct or that it’s not an accident waiting to happen!
Additional control measures that will reduce the risks further should be noted.
The idea is that, once new controls are considered and have been put in place to reduce
the risk, then at the review stage these controls (if effective) will be transferred to the
section marked ‘Control Measures Already In Place’. This should serve to reduce risks to a
level where it is considered that nothing further can reasonably be done to reduce the
risks.
The hierarchy of control measures that you should consider is, in order of importance: -

Eliminate the risk altogether by avoiding the need for carrying out the activity. This
can include ‘contracting’ out the activity to others who may be more experienced than
you.
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Substitute the activity with one which is less risky, but still achieves your goals.

Reduce the hazard &/or the numbers exposed to the hazard e.g. risks from
electrical hazards might be reduced by using low voltage electrical appliances.
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Prevent access to the hazard: Keep people away from the risk area e.g. by guarding
or barring access to the area. Use Personal protective equipment (Gloves, eyewear,
shoes, overalls, respirators etc.).
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Control the activity using a Safe System of Work - along with any training that is
relevant for employees expected to adhere to the system. In more hazardous
situations a Permit to Work system may need to be instigated.
‘Referred to’:
If a new control measure is needed to reduce the risk to an acceptable level but this
action is not within your power then fill in the person/department referred to and the
date. The person/department that the matter is referred to should be notified under a
different cover (i.e. by memo or e-mail).
NB: The responsibility for managing the risks cannot be transferred in this way to
another Department! You need to ensure that you retain ‘ownership’ of the activity and
adjust your controls as necessary in the light of any help you may or may not receive
from other Departments. All risk assessments should be open to scrutiny by all interested
parties.
‘Ensure that those affected are informed of the Risks and Controls’
If the Residual Risk has been judged to be ‘Moderate’, ‘Substantial’ or ‘Intolerable’ then
you should have considered additional control measures to reduce the risk.
Once agreed, these controls need to be put in place and you should confirm how you
have done this (or how you intend to do this). You may need to come back to this
section once this has been discussed with others: if so, write what you are going to do
into this section and make sure the ‘review date’ is sufficiently short to ensure the matter
does not get forgotten. The persons who may be affected by the activity must be
informed as to what the risks are, and what controls have been decided on in order to
reduce the risk.
There is no set way of giving this communication: you could consider giving them a copy
of the assessment (e.g. for staff) or posting signs/warning notices (e.g. for the public).
Plus, don’t forget to monitor your own controls if this is important in keeping the risk
down.
‘Person(s) Who did Assessment’, ‘Date’, ‘Review Date’ & ‘Checked By’ (see advice above)
Where do the assessments go after they are completed?
Completing the risk assessment form is NOT the end of the matter!
All risk assessments should be brought to the attention of those who are affected by the
activities and should be readily available for viewing by interested parties (including
Heads of Departments, H & S Co-ordinators, the Health, Safety & Wellbeing Team, HSE
etc.).
The controls agreed in the risk assessment need to be translated into a safe system of
work or simple procedures. The idea is to come to a considered opinion as to what
controls are needed to limit harm from potential hazards.
Following the assessment, the controls need to be put in place, communicated to all,
monitored for their effectiveness and reviewed.
The completed forms should be kept within the School/Department, where there should
be an appropriate folder set up within your I:Drive so that all necessary parties can
access the document.
Please refer to ‘Guidance on the Storage of Health & Safety Information on the I:Drive’
for further advice.