Advice to Students on Completing the Overseas Travel Risk Assessment Template
The risk assessment process is crucial to ensure your health and safety whilst overseas and it is therefore essential you engage in the process as
actively as possible.
The University has a statutory duty of care to protect, so far as is reasonably practicable, your health, safety and welfare while you are on a University related
overseas activity, this can only be accomplished if a suitable and sufficient risk assessment is completed.
To ensure that you have an insight and understanding of the risks to your health and safety whilst overseas and the necessary control measures required to
mitigate those risks, you are required to complete an overseas travel risk assessment. This will detail your specific travel arrangements, general and specific
safety issues within the specified country and any ‘work’ or leisure activities with inherent risks.
To assist you in this process a comprehensive template risk assessment has been developed which contains likely generic risks to your health and safety you
may face while overseas and example control measures to help prevent them from happening.
In addition a guide to Health and Safety Overseas has been produced, this document also forms part of the University’s management procedures and helps
the University fulfil its duty of care towards you. As such you are expected to read and take note of its contents and it is strongly advised that you take a copy
with you whilst you are overseas.
Your Travel Risk Assessment
To ensure your risk assessment is ‘suitable and sufficient’ you must complete all of the relevant sections of the template that you have been provided with.
The template contains a number hyper-links to web-pages that will assist you in this process, but you should also do your own country specific research, on
the specific location you will be staying / working in and the organisation/institution you will be working for / studying in.
To begin your risk assessment you must firstly complete the following sections:
Risk Assessment For
Assessment Undertaken By
Assessment Reviewed
Service / School: (insert Your School’s name, the
module name and tutor’s name)
Name: Your name
Name:
Location of Activity: [insert country and the name of the
specific location/s you will be studying/ staying in]
Date: Date you complete risk assessment
Date:
Activity: Your name - overseas student travel (describe
fully the reason for overseas travel, study, fieldwork,
placement, bursary, etc., the activities to be undertaken,
dates of travel, any leisure activities with inherent risks,
etc.).
Signed by Dean of School / Head of Service or their
nominee:
REF:
Date:
(Your Dean of School will sign off your assessment
when it is deemed suitable and sufficient)
This Section will be completed by the
person nominated by your School to
review your assessment
In the next sections of the risk assessment likely risks to your health and safety and example control measures have been inserted to aid you. You must
‘customise’ the template to your particular travel destination by consulting the specific country/area travel safety advice given by the UK Foreign &
Commonwealth Office: Foreign travel advice page - https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice These links will take you to this FCO webpage:
China
Insert name of country
Or scroll down to name of
country being visited
You must now open each link, read through and
take note of all the travel safety advice given by
the FCO for the country you will be visiting, this
will need to be entered into your risk
assessment.
Please note: You are not permitted to travel to any country or a specific area within a country against the advice of the FCO, e.g. where they advise against
‘all’ or ‘all but essential travel’. If you go to a country that has no travel restrictions, but they subsequently change and the FCO then advises against travel’
you will be required to return to the University as soon as possible.
In addition to FCO travel safety advice you are also required to check the travel safety advice given by red24 a leading global security company whose
services are part of the University’s overseas travel accident and insurance policy. The specific information provided by red24 is far more comprehensive and
detailed than that provided by the FCO which may prove vital particularly with travel to higher risk destinations.
Red24 will also email travellers a security briefing tailored to your travel itinerary when travelling to a high-risk region, this covers the risks, preventative
measures and important contacts you require to help you remain safe while travelling abroad.
Please note: The services of red24 must not be used for the booking of flights, accommodation, etc.
To access red24 go to https://www.red24.com/affiliate/aonprotect/ – 4 digit ‘ACE access code’ is 7797
Enter access code 7797 and click Proceed
Click Travel assistance website icon
Insert name of country
and/or insert name of city
or
or
scroll down to name of country
being visited
scroll down to name of city being
visited
You must now open each of the 7 links from the
icons, read through and take note of all the
travel safety advice given by red24 for the
country/city you will be visiting, this will again
need to be entered into your risk assessment.
Red24 also provide an overall risk rating for
each country and major capital cities along with
a breakdown of risk levels
Red24 also provide daily significant incident alerts
The next step is to actually start inserting personal information, safety warnings and safety advice from the FCO / red24 into the applicable significant hazard /
existing control section. In the ‘Personal ‘fitness’ to travel section of the risk assessment, you should include not only advice from the FCO / red24, NHS
Fitfortravel / GP, etc., on any country specific diseases and precautions, but please also declare any relevant disabilities or pre-existing medical conditions
that may require additional control measures to be put in place to ensure your health, safety and welfare before or during your overseas travel.
Now for other travel safety risks, for example where a general or specific warning is given such as: ‘There is a low threat from terrorism. But you should be
aware of the global risk of indiscriminate terrorist attacks which could be in public areas, including those frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers’, you
should copy and paste this information into the relevant hazard row in the risk assessment, in this case in the ‘Terrorism, personal security / safety’ section:
List significant hazards here:
List groups
of people at
risk:
List existing controls, or refer to safety procedures
etc.
For risks, which are not
adequately controlled,
list actions needed.
Terrorism, personal security / safety
Joe Bloggs
Procedural Guidance for H&S During Overseas Travel
Travellers
strongly
advised to research the
county / specific area
which they are visiting
e.g.
personal
safety,
areas to avoid, local
customs, legislation, etc.
FCO Advice 30/07/2013
There is a general threat from terrorism. This reflects
both the global risk of indiscriminate terrorist attacks
and the possibility of terrorist attacks by groups
opposed to the Chinese government. Attacks could
be indiscriminate including in places visited by
expatriates and foreign travelers.
Check FCO website prior to travel to ensure there are no
restrictions - no member of staff/student permitted to
travel to a country against advice from FCO.
Remaining
level of risk
high, med
or low
Where general or specific advice is given by the FCO / red24to help protect your health, safety & welfare, for example ‘We advise you to avoid any political
rallies, demonstrations or large gatherings which can on occasion become violent’ or ‘You should drink or use only boiled or bottled water and avoid ice in
drinks. You should only eat food, which has been thoroughly cooked, and for which basic hygiene precautions have been taken’, you should copy and paste
this information into the relevant ‘existing control’ section, for that hazard i.e.:
Food Poisoning / Contaminated Water
Joe Bloggs
Terrorism, personal security / safety
Joe Bloggs
FCO Advice 30/07/2013
There is a general threat from terrorism. This reflects
both the global risk of indiscriminate terrorist attacks
and the possibility of terrorist attacks by groups
opposed to the Chinese government. Attacks could
be indiscriminate including in places visited by
expatriates and foreign travelers.
FCO Advice 30/08/2013
You should drink or use only boiled or bottled water and
avoid ice in drinks. You should only eat food, which has
been thoroughly cooked, and for which basic hygiene
precautions have been taken’
FCO Advice 30/08/2013
We advise you to avoid any political rallies,
demonstrations or large gatherings which can on
occasion become violent.
Procedural Guidance for H&S During Overseas Travel
FCO website prior to travel to ensure there are no
restrictions - no member of staff/student permitted to
travel to a country against advice from FCO.
PLEASE NOTE: If the safety information given by the FCO/red24 is irrelevant to your trip or its associated activities do not include it, for instance if you are
travelling to Beijing in China, you do not need to include specific advice for travelling to other provinces in China, or if you are travelling in Summer but there
are Winter weather warnings do not includes these.
Additionally where a specific hazard is not relevant to your study or leisure activities, for instance you might not be working in an isolated area you MUST
delete it from your risk assessment.
Ensure your risk assessment is relevant to your travel, to the location you will be going, to the time of year and the activities you will be
undertaking while you are overseas. Do not assume the person reviewing your risk assessment knows what you are doing make it clear!
In the ‘Specific risks related to the study / leisure activities’ section at the end of the assessment you should try and identify any additional significant
hazards related to your work/study activities or the specific location of the institution and any leisure time activities that may have inherent risks (e.g. action
sports/activities, trekking, diving, driving, etc., this is essential as there may be insurance restrictions in place). Finally you must then identify suitable control
measures to mitigate those risks, i.e.:
List significant hazards here:
List groups
of people at
risk:
List existing controls, or refer to safety procedures etc.
For risks, which are not
adequately
controlled,
list actions needed.
Specific risks related to the study / leisure
activities
Joe Bloggs
Activity booked through reputable organisation
(Gotoafrica.com)), fully accompanied, all food,
accommodation and transport by minibus provided. Full
safety induction and medical availability provided. All
necessary vaccinations up-to-date and anti-malarial
drugs purchased.
Walking boots
purchased
Weekend trekking activity in Masai Mara
to
be
Remaining
level of risk
high, med
or low
Medium
FCO Travel Safety Advice
Road conditions and driving standards are often poor.
Drive with windows closed and doors locked. When
driving outside cities and in remote areas consider
driving in convoy. Avoid driving at night wherever
possible.
There have been a number of serious accidents
involving buses. Vehicles are often poorly maintained
and driven at excessive speed. Check the bus
operator’s safety standards.
Though very cheap to use, matatus (minibuses) are
notorious for being poorly maintained, badly driven and
uninsured.
Once you have entered all relevant information into each section, you must then decide whether there are sufficient existing control measures in place to
protect your health, safety and welfare from each hazard identified.
If you do not think there are, you should then try and identify further control measures to protect yourself and then add these measures to the ‘For risks, which
are not adequately controlled’ needed’ section. I.e. in the example given above the additional control measure is the purchase of walking boots.
Finally you must make a decision informed by your research from the FCO/red24, NHS Fitfortravel, GP advice etc., on the remaining level of risk each hazard
poses now that suitable control measures have been identified and you are then to be put in place. I.e. is the remaining level of risk now high, medium or
low? In the case of the trekking example above though the trip is well organised and would be a ‘low risk’, the vehicle travel element is an inherently higher
risk due to the poor state of driving standards and roads within the country, so the overall risk has been raised to ‘medium’.
Submitting your Risk Assessment for Approval
Once your risk assessment is completed it must be returned to your tutor no later than three weeks prior travel so it can be assessed and signed off by the
Dean of your School. If your risk assessment for whatever reason is deemed as not being ‘suitable & sufficient’ it will be returned to you with advice on where
it can be improved.
Please Note: You are not permitted to go overseas until your risk assessment has been signed off.
Further Sources of information for Research
Foreign and Commonwealth (FCO) Travel Site:
https://www.gov.uk/browse/abroad/travel-abroad
University Safety, Health, & Environment Section:
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/information/services/fm/safety_and_health/index
.php
AonProtect Personal Accident & Travel Assistance – red24
https://www.red24.com/affiliate/aonprotect/ – 4 digit passcode is 7797
NHS Fit to Travel: http://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/home.aspx
US Department of State – travel safety:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/travel_1744.html
Travel Health Advice (detailed advice on various travel related
issues): http://www.travelhealth.co.uk/advice/index.html
NHS Taking medicines overseas:
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1074.aspx
Safe Travel: http://www.safetravel.co.uk/
DirectGov - Airport and airline services for disabled travellers
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/TravelHolidaysAndBreaks/GettingThe
re/DG_4017242
NHS Health Care Abroad http://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/Healthcareabroad/pages/Healthcareabro
ad.aspx
TripAdvisor: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/
Safety, Health & Environment Section
August 2013
Further advice on completing risk assessments can be obtained from your module tutor
and/or the University’s Safety, Health & Environment Adviser covering your School.