Risk Assessment

Date:               October 2023

Issue:              No. 5

Subject:          Risk Assessment

This document forms part of the National Ice Centre’s organisational written safety policy arrangements. 

Departments, services or teams may consider it appropriate to develop additional guidance and systems of work on specific work related activities. 

Where proposals, additional guidance or changes to systems of work will have an impact on health, safety and welfare, this will be discussed and agreed at the Health & Safety Committee.

If you have any questions or require further information or support on the contents of this document, please contact the NIC Health & Safety Advisor or Corporate Safety Advice.

The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 section 2 requires employers to consider the health & safety of employees and the safety of others. 

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 clarifies the legal position and the concept of managing safety within the workplace. 

Regulation 3 of this legislation identifies that every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of:

• The risks to the health and safety of their employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and
• The risk to the health and safety of persons not in their employment arising out of or in connection with the undertaking.

The specific contents of regulation 3 are detailed in Appendix A at the end of this document

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) identify that risk assessments are a systematic examination of all work activities, which identify the hazards, evaluate risk and current control measures and identifies improvements to those control measures or additional control measures which may be required.

The purpose of the assessment is to identify adequate and appropriate control measures needed to reduce risk and to comply with the different legal requirements relevant to the work activity.

The significant findings of assessments must be recorded.  

They must also be reviewed regularly, and when there have been significant changes to the work operation that may invalidate them.

The risk assessment process takes a pro-active approach to ensure controls are provided, thereby reducing or eliminating the risks to which employees are exposed, at the same time, reducing accidents and occupational ill health.

Apart from the statutory requirement to undertake risk assessments, it should also be considered as a practical process to help managers to properly identify the controls and manage health and safety risks to employees and to the public.  

Risk assessment is a basic management tool and a key element of the overall successful management of health and safety generally.

As a manager, you need to understand the difference between hazards and risk.

The National Ice Centre uses the simplistic risk rating of the likelihood of an incident occurring multiplied by the severity of an incident.

When managers consider the risk, existing control measures and the people who may be affected must be accounted for.

Failure to consider this a common error for the assessors when identifying risk levels.

Severity

The level of severity is scored (1, 2 or 3)

As there are a wide variety of incidents and injury scenarios, a simple guide to what may be considered as a level of severity may be:

1 = Minor injuries with little or no time off work

2 = Any injury where time of work is likely up to a period of 7 days

3 = Any injury where time off work will be over 7 days

The above criteria identify a person in work, however the same relative rating can be considered for service users and members of the public.

When deciding upon the level of severity, do not score the worst-case scenario; think about the most likely outcome e.g. if the accident were to happen 10 times, what would be the outcome that would occur most often?

Likelihood

The likelihood of the incident happening is also scored (1, 2 or 3).

As with severity, a wide variety of scenarios may be assessed but a simple guide as to the likelihood of injury is identified below

1 = Very unlikely to occur

2 = Could occur occasionally

3 = Is likely to happen in the immediate future

Risk Rating

In order to decide upon the overall risk (Risk Rating) the severity should be multiplied by the likelihood.  This information should be used as a guide to identify what actions may be required.

Risks are rated as follows

IMMEDIATE ACTION

(scores of 6 to 9)

ACTION REQUIRED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

(scores of 3 to 4)

ACCEPTABLE CONDITIONS, however more action may be done if reasonable to reduce the risk further

(scores of 1 to 2).

It is recommended that any risks that would create a potential risk rating higher than 3 are formally recorded.

It is also important to recognise that this system for identify risk rating is only meant as a guide to the potential level of risk present.

Managers must understand the definition of ‘Suitable and sufficient’ which is a term that is specifically referred to when considering the completion of risk assessments. 

Although this term is not strictly specified, it does identify that significant risks must be formally recorded and it is also important to recognise that not all risks need a full written assessment. 

Not all risks will need to be assessed using the full written assessment however, the process for evaluating risks needs to be transparent to allow for a robust risk management approach.

 It is recommended that any evaluation of risk by managers that is not to be fully assessed is recorded in a simple way to show that the full assessment was not required.

Therefore, a common sense approach needs to be considered and the level of detail recorded needs to match the level of inherent risk. e.g. a loose carpet tile at the back of a store room that no-one enters would not necessarily require a written assessment, yet this same loose carpet tile if located on a main walkway or at the top of a set of stairs would certainly require a formal assessment. 

If you have any queries about whether a risk assessment should be completed for a particular situation, please contact the NIC Health & Safety Advisor for advice.

Before assessing the risk, it is important to identify the control measures (actions already being taken to prevent or reduce harm) that are in place. 

With this information, managers can make a decision as to what further actions may be required.

All colleagues who are involved in the risk assessment process must be competent.   

Competence is considered to be a person who has received training, knowledge and experience to understand the risks.

• Management are responsible for ensuring risk assessments and the associated control measures are in place.
• The risk assessment process needs to be practical and take account of the views of colleagues and their safety representatives. It should involve management and where you have any specific difficulties in relation to the completion of the risk assessment, you must involve the NIC Health & Safety Advisor
• Ensure all aspects of the work activity are considered, including routine and non-routine activities.
• Don’t just think about your colleagues but also consider cleaners, visitors, contractors, maintenance personnel, pupils, residents and, where appropriate, citizens.
• Identify all significant hazards related to the activities being considered.
• Identify what existing controls and precautions are in place to reduce the risks and are they adequate?
• If after applying the risk rating method to the existing control measures, you find that risks are still too high, what further action and control measures may be required.
• Some control measures are specifically identified from the requirements of particular legislation and Approved Codes of Practice (ACoP) whilst others may be developed through referring to the National Ice Centre’s ‘Safety Policy & Arrangements’ documents, manufacturers’ instructions and local procedures.
• Each risk assessment completed must be appropriate to the nature of the work.
• Once a risk assessment form has been completed it must be stored in a suitable location which gives colleagues access and the information contained on each assessment must be communicated to all relevant colleagues.

Hierarchy of control measures

Managers need to ensure that the control measures are prioritised using the following options:

Avoid

controls are put in place that prevent the issue from occurring.

Reduce

controls identified are put in place which may reduce the severity, likelihood or number of persons affected by an incident, however, the situation remains.

Inform, Instruct, Train and Supervise

This will ensure that the affected colleagues are given relevant information about the situation.

This can be by means of training, written or verbal communication and access to relevant documents so they are informed and supported by appropriate supervision to maintain safe systems of work.

Provide ‘Personal Protective Equipment’

Implemented to protect individuals from the situation.

‘Personal Protective Equipment’ may be an effective control measure, but all other control measures must be considered prior to this being provided.

General risk assessments provide information that covers a wide variety of sites and locations. 

The information contained within them looks at the likely hazards and risks associated with a particular activity or working environment.

However, further action may well be required to tailor the generic risk assessment to address the particular situation, location or individuals that may be affected. 

Risk assessments are a management tool. 

Although managers do not have to undertake each and every risk assessment as in certain circumstances, it may be necessary for this duty can be delegated to a nominated risk assessor.

This person that has been delegated to undertake the assessment on behalf of management MUST be competent (implying that they have the required training, knowledge and experience to undertake the assessment). 

Failure to delegate to an appropriately competent assessor may negate the legal standing of the risk assessment. 

It should be noted that in certain circumstances, the manager may not be a competent person to complete the assessment due to limitations on technical or practical knowledge.

The risk assessor is responsible for collecting relevant information and transferring it onto the appropriate risk assessment form. 

It is also very important to recognise that a risk assessor’s responsibility is only to ensure the information is correct and that they do not assess on matters outside of their area of knowledge or experience. 

The responsibility for the information identified within the risk assessment remains with the manager who commissioned the assessment. 

It is this manager who will countersign the risk assessment and is required to consider implementing the additional controls that have been identified on the risk assessment. 

It is also this person’s responsibility to ensure that all affected colleagues have been informed of the information detailed within the assessment.

This consultation does not consider the appointment of individual risk assessors but can consider the criteria for selecting appropriate persons across the organisation.

Managers need to be aware that risk assessments are an on-going process. 

Risk assessments which no longer contain valid information or where significant change has occurred must be re-assessed. 

This extends to managers completing risk assessment for new significant hazards / risks as they are introduced into the working environment.

It is recommended that all assessments are reviewed within a reasonable time frame. 

However, as long as the information contained within the assessment is valid, the assessment also remains current.

It is also important to identify that any accidents, violence, ill health or near misses that are covered by a risk assessment are reviewed and the implications of the incident are considered and updated as required.

Completing risk assessments and putting them away in files where they are never seen or considered is a pointless exercise and does not achieve anything.

Communication

Managers need to understand that risk assessments are working documents. 

Those affected by the contents of the assessment must be informed of the contents, instructed as to how to avoid risks and trained in appropriate control measures.

Training

Module 2 – Safety Management Training considers the process around the completion of risk assessments and is provided by Corporate Safety Advice. 

It is recommended that if you are likely to be in a position where you will be required to complete or countersign a risk assessment that you undertake this training. 

Contact the NIC Health & Safety Advisor or Corporate Safety Advice directly for further advice or information on training.

As new safety issues are identified, additional risk assessment templates may be developed to make their completion easier. 

A current list of these assessment templates is available from within the safety manual in the Health & Safety forms section.