How to complete a risk assessment: FAQs

There are four main reasons: 

• It’s the law: under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, UK employers are legally required to complete a risk assessment.  

• Minimise financial and reputational losses: protect your business against personal injury claims and reputational damage. 

• Be more efficient: prevention is far less time-consuming than dealing with the aftermath of an accident and any resulting injuries. 

• Protect staff and customers: creating a safer working environment minimises the risk of accidents, injuries and ill health. 

You’d typically need to complete a risk assessment: 

• Before starting a new project or activity 
• If you’ve made changes to an existing process 

Yes, in most cases. The signature shows that you’ve reviewed, approved and accepted the responsibilities highlighted within the risk assessment. 

You’ll need someone with the authority and appropriate knowledge to review and approve the risk assessment. 

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recommends following these five steps: 

• Identify hazards: think about what may cause harm around your workplace 
• Assess the risks: decide how likely it is someone could be harmed and how seriously 
• Control the risks: consider whether you can remove all hazards or at least control the risk 
• Record your findings: note anything significant, if you employ more than five people 
• Review the controls: check the measures you’ve put in place are helping to keep people safe 

You  can carry out what is called a Qualitative Risk Rating which means you can simply decide whether the risk is minimal, low, medium or high. Generally this short form of risk rating is used to determine which hazard should take priority over another in terms of deciding what to do and when.

A simple low, medium or high scoring system should be enough: 

• Low risk: minor impact or damage that can be quickly repaired 
• Medium risk: moderate impact with partial loss of operations 
• High risk: disastrous impact with very serious consequences 

It depends on several factors, such as: 

• The type of activity 
• The level of risk involved 
• Whether you’ve implemented changes to a process 

We recommend reviewing your risk assessment every year. 

• Do your homework: collect as much info as you can about the activity or process 
• Consult your team: people that are familiar with the activities or processes may be able to offer valuable insights into potential risks 
• Use a checklist: a risk assessment checklist will help you consider all possible risks 
• Consult an expert: an external health and safety expert can offer insights that may not be available within your business 

Your goal is to identify as many potential risks as you can, even if they seem unlikely to happen.

Worried you’ve missed something? Our team of health and safety experts can help. We can complete an audit of your premises and processes to identify all potential risks.  

Taking a step-by-step approach can be helpful: 

• Elimination: completely remove the hazard or risk 
• Substitution: replace the hazardous elements with a safer alternative 
• Engineering: design the environment or equipment to minimise risk 
• Admin: put policies, procedures, training and guidelines in place to manage risks 
• Personal protective equipment: provide your team with the right equipment to protect them from harm  

If you need to start doing things differently, we recommend taking a methodical, five-step approach: 

• Create an action plan: this should include the changes that need to be made, and the tasks, responsibilities, timelines and resources required to make it work successfully. 
• Make a priority list: prioritise the actions you need to take based on the level of risk and how likely it is to happen. 
• Engage your team: be sure to get your team and relevant stakeholders on board, with clear communication; their input and cooperation are vital for the new procedure to succeed. 
• Provide training: educate your team to make sure they understand what needs to happen from now on, and how they should be using equipment. 
• Encourage feedback: create an environment where all team members feel comfortable sharing feedback; this will help to identify any issues early on and enable you to make necessary improvements.  

Need support with engaging your employees? Our health and safety experts have heaps of experience supporting businesses. We can help you make sure that compliance is at the top of everyone’s agenda. 

A risk assessment could be as simple as completing a standard risk assessment form. There’s no need to produce masses of paperwork.