Putting the results of your risk assessment into practice will make a difference when looking after people and your business.
Writing down the results of your risk assessment, and sharing them with your staff, encourages you to do this. If you have fewer than five employees you do not have to write anything down, though it is useful so that you can review it at a later date.
No one expects a risk assessment to be perfect - but it must be suitable and sufficient
You need to be able to show that:
- you made a proper check
- you asked who might be affected
- you dealt with all the obvious significant hazards, taking into account the number of people who could be involved
- your precautions are reasonable and the remaining risk is low
- you involved your staff or their representatives in the process
If there are quite a few improvements that you could make, don't try to do everything at once. Make a plan of action to deal with the most important things first. Health and safety inspectors acknowledge the efforts of businesses that are clearly trying to make improvements.
A good plan of action often includes a mixture of different things such as:
- a few cheap or easy improvements that can be done quickly, perhaps as a temporary solution until more reliable controls are in place
- long-term solutions to those risks most likely to cause accidents or ill health
- long-term solutions to those risks with the worst potential consequences
- arrangements for training employees on the main risks that remain and how they are to be controlled
- regular checks to make sure that the control measures stay in place
- clear responsibilities - who will lead on what action, and by when
Prioritise and tackle the most important things first.
The HSE leaflet on ‘Five steps to Risk Assessment’ may provide further information, and there are case studies available to help too:
Last Updated on Wednesday, May 8, 2024
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