Risk Assessment -An Introduction

Risk assessment is a careful examination of what, in the workplace, could cause harm, so that we can decide if the current precautions are enough to prevent that harm, or if we need to do more to reduce the level of risk.

What are the objectives of Risk Assessment at workplace?

It helps to prevent fatality & personal injury and ill health .
It helps to identify and eliminate or control the hazards.
It helps to prevent / reducing/ Control the risk to an acceptable level.
It helps to prevent other types of loss incident like damage only accident.
Achieve Legal Compliances- It helps to prevent breaches of statute law, which might lead to enforcement action and/or prosecution (HSE-HASWA- 1974 & HSE-MHSWR-1999 & ILO-International Labor Organisation).
Reduce Financial Implications- It helps to prevent the direct and indirect costs that follow on from accidents or financial loss.
It makes people aware of hazards.
It helps to create a safer working environment.

When should a risk assessment be done?

There may be many reasons a risk assessment is needed, including:

Before new processes or activities are introduced at workplace.
Before changes are introduced to existing processes or activities, including when products, machinery, tools, equipment change or new information concerning harm becomes available.
When hazards are identified.

Risk-Assessors-Who can be the Risk Assessor ?

Risk assessments should be carried out by competent people who are having knowledge of Hazard and Risk, ability to perform Risk Assessment, Trained , Experience, skills and able to implement the rules, regulations and guidance of H&S).

A risk assessment might be carried out by one person or a team.

In any organisation, A Risk Assessment team including those of:

Workers familiar with tasks, job and areas which to be assessed
Health and safety specialists
Technical specialists
Supervisor
Line managers
Workers’ Safety representatives

What the law says on assessing risks (as per HSG65, www.hse.gov.uk )

The law states that a risk assessment must be 'suitable and sufficient', ie it should show that:

a proper check was made
you asked who might be affected
you dealt with all the obvious significant risks, taking into account the number of people who could be involved
the precautions are reasonable, and the remaining risk is low
you involved your workers or their representatives in the process
The level of detail in a risk assessment should be proportionate to the risk and appropriate to the nature of the work.
Insignificant risks can usually be ignored, as can risks arising from routine activities associated with life in general, unless the work activity compounds or significantly alters those risks.
Your risk assessment should only include what you could reasonably be expected to know - you are not expected to anticipate unforeseeable risks.