Step 1: Identify the hazards
A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause harm, such as chemicals, electricity, gas, working from heights, unsafe equipment, hazardous substances, or poor working conditions.
- Walk around the workplace to see what could cause harm - concentrate especially on significant hazards that could result in serious harm or affect several people. Consider taking another person with you to ensure you identify all hazards.
- Ask your employees or their representatives for their views as they might notice things that you might not.
- Check any available product information, such as manufacturers' instructions or data sheets that can help you find hazards.
- Review past accident and near-miss reports and sickness absence records to help you spot patterns or recurring problems.
- Consider hazards that could cause long-term effects, such as high noise levels.
What is the law guide
The Desktop Lawyer law guide aims to present the law to you in a comprehensive yet jargon-free and easy-to-read format. Our law guide is constantly kept up to date with changes in business and family law by our team of in house solicitors, and includes information across all the legal jurisdictions in the UK.
Our law guide is free to use. Where we provide documents related to this area of law, or where they may help you with any legal issue in this area, they will be listed to the right of this message.