Risk assessment

This page contains information on:

• Risk assessment
• Sickness absence
• Health monitoring

A risk assessment is a careful examination of what could cause harm to people in the workplace. Doing a risk assessment will help employers identify the significant risks in their workplace, and avoid wasted effort by effectively targeting these. A good risk assessment will help avoid accidents and ill health, which can not only ruin lives, but can also increase costs to business through lost output, compensation claims and higher insurance premiums.

Risk assessment is a five stage process and involves:

• looking for the hazards;
• deciding who might be harmed and how;
• evaluating the risks and deciding whether the existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done;
• recording your findings and telling your employees about them; and
• reviewing your assessment and revising it if necessary, for example:
  • if the work changes significantly;
  • if there is an accident; or
  • when someone returns to work after sickness or injury, or suffers a change in their health, that could affect or be affected by their work.

General advice on how to carry out a risk assessment is contained in 'Five steps to risk assessment' [PDF 664KB]

Involving employees and safety representatives in the risk assessment process is a highly effective way of identifying hazards and developing solutions that work.

Legal requirement to undertake risk assessments

Employers have a legal obligation to protect their health and safety and that of their workforce. Regulation 3, of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, requires, among other things, that all employers assess the risks to the health and safety of their employees while they are at work.

Risk assessment specific to MSDs

Manual handling

As well as the general risk assessment requirements set out in the Management Regulations, there is a requirement in the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as amended) to carry out a risk assessment on manual handling tasks. The main areas to focus on are the task, load, working environment and individual capability. The guidance on the manual handling Regulations contains a risk assessment filter and checklist to help employers assess manual handling tasks. A revised version of the manual handling guidance was published in March 2004. It also includes a checklist to help you assess the risk posed by workplace pushing and pulling activities.

HSE have also produced the Manual Handling Assessment Chart (MAC), which can be used to help identify high-risk tasks. The MAC does not comprise a full risk assessment, as some aspects, such as individual factors, are not covered.

Upper limb disorders

In relation to upper limb disorders, the filter [PDF 120KB] and risk assessment worksheets [PDF 50KB] featured in the guidance booklet Upper limb disorders in the workplace can be used as an aid to risk assessment. They are intended to help employers identify the potential risks and possible ways to reduce them.

DSE

The Display Screen Equipment Regulations 1992 (as amended) require employers to undertake an analysis of the workstation to assess and reduce risks. To assist employers to comply with the minimum requirements we have produced a visual display unit (VDU) workstation checklist as an aid to risk assessment. It is available in the two guidance documents Work with display screen equipment and The law on VDUs: An easy guide. You can also buy the VDU workstation checklist separately in packs of five. See information page.

More information

A risk assessment should cover all standard operations, including cleaning and maintenance activities. It should reflect how the work is actually done.

Here are just some of the other tools that are available to be used to assess various occupational tasks or jobs. Please be aware that this is not an exhaustive list and that there maybe other, more applicable, approaches that assess the task or job more accurately.

• NIOSH Lifting Equation
  This is used to assess manual handling operations. This link will take you to the NIOSH website, where the tool and other related information can be found.
• OWAS (Ovako Working Posture System)
  This tool is used at the workplace for purposes such as ergonomic evaluation of the work postures to improve the workplace/tools/machines and other planning requirements and research. The website is a link to the developers of the tool. Here you can download the tool or contact them for further assistance.
• QEC (Quick Exposure Check)
  This practical tool is used for the assessment of exposure to risks for work-related musculoskeletal disorders. At this site you will be able to download the new improved version of the QEC and support package that will help you use it.
  
• RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment)
  This is an assessment for ergonomic investigations of workplaces where work related upper limb disorders (WRULDs) have been reported. The website below is the functional site when you can carry out an assessment online or offline.

For a basic introduction to health and safety, including a section on risk assessment and a form to record the details see the leaflet An introduction to health and safety [PDF 364KB].

Sickness absence

To help you assess risks and review the effectiveness of your risk assessment, it is important that you record sickness absence, including the length of, and reasons for absence. For example sickness records could reveal a pattern of back pain or upper limb disorders in a particular area of the workplace or people performing similar tasks. This could mean that there is a work-related cause for the disorder and that you need to review the risk assessment in consultation with your employees. On the 27th October HSE launched a guide for employers and managers called Managing Sickness Absence and Return to Work. It is supported by a free leaflet designed for employees, a free desk aid for small businesses and webpages that contain case studies on managing sickness absence from MSD's.

When an employee returns to work after an absence due to a musculoskeletal disorder (or other illness or change in health), you may need to consider modifying the job, work system or workstation to avoid worsening their condition. Discussion with employees affected, colleagues and safety representatives can often identify a simple adjustment that would benefit the employee concerned and prevent others becoming ill or injured.

Health monitoring for back pain in drivers of industrial and agricultural vehicles and plant

New guidance focuses on the risk of low back pain as the main health effect of concern for drivers and operators of mobile machinery at work. It describes health monitoring which is an informal non-statutory method of surveying your workforce for symptoms of ill health including low back pain. This type of occupational health management system can enable you as an employer to be aware of health problems and intervene to prevent their problems being caused or made worse by work activities. Another important role of health monitoring is to feedback into a system that reviews current control methods in place.