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Topic area 5: Risk assessment and risk management

Estimated Duration: 3 Hours

Objectives:

To introduce the concept of risk assessment and its role within UK Health & Safety legislation;
To define the principal components of risk management;
To outline advanced risk assessment methodologies for used in quantitative risk assessments.
To outline a practical risk assessment methodology for use in everyday subjective risk assessments.

Lecture Plan

Definitions of terminology:

Hazard – anything with the potential to cause har
Risks – the likelihood that a specified undesired event will occur due to the realisation of a hazard by, or during work activities or by the products and services created by work activities.
Control Measures – any measure designed to reduce the risk of a hazard occurring.

Risk assessment in legislation:

Concept of risk assessment:

Subjective Risk Assessment

Advanced risk assessment techniques and examples:

Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) – used in the petrochemical and nuclear industries.
HAZOP’s – Hazard & Operability Studie
FMEA – Failure Modes and Events Analysis
Event/Fault Tree Analysis

Organising for risk assessment (‘Risk Management’)

Developing a risk assessment strategy – undertaking a ‘baseline’ risk assessment
Role and responsibilities for action – creating action plans with actions, responsible persons, expected completion dates, closing off
Monitoring and reviewing the system. – closing the loop to ensure that risk control measures are (a) implemented and (b) effective.

Practical risk assessment (subjective risk assessment) and facilitation skills.