Health and safety risk assessments

Legal requirement

You're legally required to examine your workplace for any health and safety risks to your workforce. This process is called a risk assessment.

It allows you to plan how to remove or control the risk, and consider whether your current measures are good enough.

If you're a small business and you already know what the risks are, you could probably do the assessment yourself. If you're a larger business, you could ask an external health and safety adviser to help you. You however still remain ultimately responsible for seeing that it is done properly.

Although you only have to record your risk assessment in writing if you have 5 or more employees, it is best practice to do so anyway, as it provides documentary evidence of how you conducted the assessments if you are ever investigated or become subject to a claim. The risk assessment should be shared and discussed with all staff. If any trade unions are recognised, it should also be shared and discussed with them, so that both union and non-union members are fully informed.

Which laws apply?

• Reg 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
• Reg 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

Vulnerable employees

If you employ vulnerable people, you must conduct specific risk assessments that consider the particular risks they may be exposed to and identify appropriate measures to mitigate those risks.

Vulnerable employees include any:

• disabled workers;
• children and young people at work;
• expectant and new mothers;
• workers experiencing menopause; and
• homeworkers.

COVID-19

It is no longer a legal requirement to carry out a specific COVID-19 risk assessment in all workplaces. However, if you employ staff who are at risk of being directly exposed to the virus because of the nature of their work, you must specifically consider these risks in your risk assessment and put appropriate control measures in place.

Consult employees

Before you carry out your risk assessment, you should seek input from your employees as they often have first-hand knowledge of workplace hazards and can offer useful advice to guide your assessment.