Step 5: Assess the risks

The law says you must assess and manage the health and safety risks of your business.

In a risk assessment you examine carefully what in your work could cause harm to people. It shows if you have taken enough precautions, or if you should do more to prevent harm.

HSE's risk management site gives you practical steps to follow, including:

• Five steps to risk assessment. We believe this method is the most straightforward for most organisations. However, 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. These examples will help you see what a risk assessment might look like. They show that a risk assessment should be about identifying practical actions that protect people from harm, not a bureaucratic exercise.