Example risk assessments

So, you’re going to do a risk assessment for your workplace. You've read Five steps to risk assessment and you’ve downloaded the Risk Assessment and Policy Template. This template brings together your risk assessment, health and safety policy and record of health and safety arrangements into one document to help get you started and save you time. If you already have a health and safety policy, you may choose to simply complete the risk assessment part of the template.

But, what do you actually need to write down? What might a 'good enough' record of a risk assessment look like?

Risk assessments should be about identifying practical actions that protect people from harm and injury, not a bureaucratic experience. For the majority of risk assessments, short bullet points work well.

The example risk assessments below show you what a record of a risk assessment might look like. If your industry is not listed below, pick the one closest to it and use it as a guide for completing the template, adapting it for your own workplace.

You can print and save the template so you can review and update it as and when required.

This is not the only way to do a risk assessment, there are other methods that work well, particularly for more complex risks and circumstances.

Example risk assessments

The examples show the kind of approach HSE expects a small business or workplace to take. They are not generic risk assessments that you can just put your company name on and adopt wholesale without any thought. Doing that would not satisfy the law and it would not protect people effectively.

Even where the hazards are the same, the control measures you adopt may have to be different from those in the examples to meet the particular conditions in your workplace.

Remember

A risk assessment will only be effective if you and your staff act on it. It is important that you follow through with any actions required and review it on a regular basis.

Every business is different – you need to think through the hazards and controls required in your business for yourself.

We also have an example health and safety policy. This illustrates what you need to think about and include if you choose to complete the policy section of the template.

Information and guidance on how to comply with fire safety law and conduct a fire risk assessment can be found at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/firesafety