Risk Assessment

The "Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires that every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of:

· risk to health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and
· risk to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him or his undertaking

Other specific Regulations such as the "Noise at Work Regulations 1989", "Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1999" and "The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992" all require the employer to carry out Risk Assessments.

On completion of the course students will have the knowledge to carry out a risk assessment in order to:

· identify the hazards - those which have the potential to cause harm
· identify the risks - the likelihood of the hazard actually causing harm and the severity of injury and ill health
· assess the likelihood of the hazard and risk coming together
· identify steps needed to ensure that the possibility of identified hazards and risks do not materialise to cause injury/ill health to persons, or damage to equipment
· identify the significant risks. Do not concentrate on trivial risks
· identify relevant safety regulations which may have to be complied with
· assess risks from identified hazards taking into account existing control measures
· provide a systematic way at looking at hazards and risks i.e. by groups such as operations, processes, machinery etc
· ensure all aspects of the work activity are covered