The effectiveness of a risk assessment is dependent on carefully reviewing a workplace, recognising the problems and having enough knowledge to come to a sensible plan, and subsequently putting it into effect. Employers should always take the following actions, regardless of all other considerations:
• Provide adequate control of the health and safety risks
• Consult with employees on matters affecting their health and safety
• Provide and maintain safe plant and equipment
• Ensure safe handing and use of substances
• Provide information, instruction, supervision and training so that employees are competent to carry out their role
• Review and revise all these policies regularly.
More specifically, an employer should consider the following issues, and make plans to deal with any issues:
• Do you have floors which can be slippery?
• Does spillage occur and is it dealt with quickly?
• Do people use unlit areas in the dark?
• Do you use floor cleaning materials anywhere? Are the right methods and materials being used?
• Do you know whether there is asbestos in your premises?
• Do you know whether there is asbestos in any of the materials you work with?
• Do you use chemicals at work (including cleaning materials)?
• Do you know suppliers of hazardous substances have to provide information to users, including safety data sheets and proper labelling?
• Are dust or fumes present in your workplace?
• Do you carry out simple maintenance or cleaning tasks that require working where you could hurt yourself if you fell?
• Do you have the most appropriate equipment for the job?
• Is the equipment you have well maintained and do your employees know how to use it safely?
• Does your work include strenuous lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, reaching or repetitive handling?
• Do you have repetitive finger, hand or arm movements which are frequent, forceful or awkward?
• Does your work involve twisting, squeezing, hammering or pounding?
• Is there regular use of display screens as a significant part of the work?
• Does anyone use a keyboard, mouse or other input device?
• Are there times when the workplace is so noisy that people have to shout to each other at normal speaking distance to make themselves heard?
• Are noisy powered tools or machinery in use for at least part of the day?
• Are there noisy bangs from hammering, explosive or impact tools, or guns?
• Are there areas where noise could interfere with warning and danger signals?
• Does anyone work with hand-held and hand-guided tools and machines such as concrete breakers and vibrating compactor plates and workpieces such as castings which are held against powered machinery such as pedestal grinders?
• Does anyone often drive off-road machinery such as tractors, dumper trucks or excavators or unsuspended vehicles such as fork-lift trucks?
• Does anyone do electrical work in your business?
• Is your electrical equipment in good working order?
• Do you choose equipment that is suitable for its working environment, e.g. waterproof or dustproof?
• Do you dig in the street, pavement or near buildings?
• Do you work near or under overhead power lines?
• Do you use ladders or other equipment for working at heights? For example, it may often be safer to use an access tower or mobile elevating work platform than a ladder.
• Do you have machinery of any kind? You need to guard the parts that could cause injury; have the right controls, especially for starting and stopping; clean, or clear blockages in a safe way; and carry out preventive checks, maintenance and inspection.
• Are hand tools used in your workplace, e.g. screwdrivers, knives, hand saws, meat cleavers, hammers?
• Do you have lifting equipment such as pulley blocks, cranes, and lift trucks? Most lifting equipment will require regular thorough examination by a competent person.
• Does anyone ever have to work on the roof, at a height or on fragile materials?
• Does anyone have to fault find and repair machinery or equipment when it breaks down?
• Is there a tank, pit, silo or similar confined space into which someone might go – and would you know if they did?
• Have you found out whether there is any asbestos in your buildings or plant which could be disturbed during maintenance or alterations?
• Do you have vehicles in operation at your workplace?
• If so what kinds of vehicles are they?
• Are pedestrians separated from vehicle movements as much as possible?
• Are traffic routes suitable for the vehicles which have to use them?
• Are they clearly marked?
• Do you know who is allowed to drive or operate the vehicles?
• Are loading and unloading operations carried out safely?
• Do you actively control driving behaviour?
• Are all vehicles properly maintained?
• Do you have any pressure systems or equipment in your business that contains a fluid under pressure?
• Do you ensure your pressure systems have been designed, installed, maintained and periodically examined so as to prevent danger?
• Do you keep or use flammable substances?
• Do you use or store gas in cylinders
• Do you work with flammable dusts?
• Do you work with plastic foams or polyester wadding
• Do you spray flammable paints?
• Do you know the dangers of putting flammable liquids on fires to make them burn more intensely?
• Do you use oxygen for welding?
• Do people in your business spend a lot of time working outdoors?
• Do you have equipment which gives off ultra-violet radiation, e.g. for curing plastics or inks?
• Do you work with lasers?
• Is your business in an area where levels of radon are higher than average?
• Are any radioactive sources used in your business brought in by a specialist contractor, or do you transport them?
• Is X-ray equipment used?
• Do you have a high staff turnover, low productivity or low morale?
• Have you noticed bullying, changes in behaviour, staff working late or increased sickness absence?
• Do your employees seem happy to come into work?
• Are you aware that there are individual differences in vulnerability to stress and that situations outside work can also affect the ability to cope with excessive pressure at work?
• Do you have at least the minimum first-aid provision at your workplace?
• As an employer you must provide first-aid equipment, facilities and personnel appropriate for the circumstances in your workplace. The minimum would be a suitably stocked first-aid box and a person appointed to take charge of first-aid arrangements.
• Do you know whether you might need to provide more than the minimum?
• Do you know which accidents and ill health cases to report, including who should do it, when and how?
• Do you know what accidents cost – and that insurance policies do not cover all the costs?