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Risk Assessments
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Are they really necessary?
You are very busy, and risk assessments are time consuming. So is there any danger in “forgetting” this part of the Health and Safety Regulations? Or how can you comply with your obligations in a cost-
effective way?
A risk assessment is a proactive process, which involves the identification of health and safety hazards in the workplace and leads to decisions on how to control these hazards.
What is your risk?
Employers who employ five or employees have a legal obligation to undertake risk assessments of all work activities. So what can happen if you don’t do risk assessments?
- By not undertaking risk assessments, you may breach the Health and Safety at Work Act which can result in a £20,000 fine or six months imprisonment for each offence, plus a possible £5,000 fine for breaches of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations. However, the chance of being caught and sentenced is rather small.
- A much greater possibility is that s successful claim can be made against an employer for a work related illness or injury which can result in significant financial costs. For example, a recent claim for repetitive stress injury resulted in a UK court awarding the employee £82,000 damages.
An employee can successfully claim against his/her employer, even if a risk assessment has been undertaken but no control method has been put in place to reduce risk, and as a result, the employee is injured. For example, in a laundry, a risk assessment had been carried out, and a maximum load recommended, but no weighing scales had been provided to enable employees to check they were not lifting in excess of the maximum load. A laundry worker injured his back and his employer had to pay out £12,000 in compensation. A further requirement is to provide employees with appropriate information and training on safe working practices. If you do not comply with this regulation, and an employee is injured, you will have to pay out compensation. In a case where an employee using a hammer action drill had not been given advice or training and subsequently developed hand-arm vibration syndrome, the employer had to pay out £76,000 in compensation. - Finally, a poor health and safety “track record” tends to result in higher insurance premiums. Also, poor health and safety can lead to low morale, which results in reduced productivity.
Time to think about action?
If you have decided to set up risk assessments, here is some information and advice, which will help you. Firstly, “The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulation, 1992” provides details of what should be included in a risk assessment. You can buy a copy from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at £5.75 (Telepone 01787 881165).
It is useful to know that there is no set checklist for a risk assessment, but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have designed a risk assessment form, which is available free of charge. The HSE also provide a useful leaflet “5 Steps to Risk Assessment”. Both of these are available on telephone request. Keeping paper records are quite acceptable, but are worth considering computerised records if you have a large number of risk assessments to do. If you are in any doubt or have any queries on how to apply this legislation within your business, you can telephone the HSE’s Infoline on 0870 1545500.
If you don’t have proper risk assessment procedures, the possibility of compensation claims is far greater than most employers realise. If you are in any doubt on how to apply current legislation, contact the Health and Safety Executive on 0541 545 500 for advice.