Risk Assessments #2: What Level of Risk Does Each Hazard Pose?

Risk assessments are a legal requirement for every employer or self-employed person within the UK. Rather than just creating a single, generalized assessment hoping it will cover the majority of risks an individual could face - it is imperative employers consider the different locations, situations and premises their staff find themselves in...

Following on from part I of our risk assessment series, which focused on understanding the hazards that exist in the workplace, part II will look at how we evaluate the risks that the hazards identified pose.

There are risks involved in everything we do. Risk assessments help manage risk, these assessments are a systematic approach to assess the likelihood of an incident occurring. By assessing risk, we can take steps to better protect ourselves and those around us.

What are important areas to understand?

An important step in ensuring an assessment is effective lies in having a good understanding of the terminology necessary to detail both risks and hazards. Although these terms can appear very similar, they should not be used interchangeably. Below we introduce such useful terminology when considering risk assessments:

• Risk = The likelihood that those harmful consequences occur and the severity of the outcome e.g. the likelihood of someone sustaining a needlestick injury from the unsheathed needle.
• Incident/ hazardous event = Consider an incident/ hazardous event takes place when someone or something interacts with the hazard and harm results e.g. suppose there is a hole in the ground. The hole (the hazard) by itself isn’t causing any harm, but if someone tripped over it (the hazardous event) then it’d become harmful. Every hazardous event has a likelihood and a consequence.
• Likelihood = is a measure of the chance that the hazardous event will occur. If the hole is in a busy area, such as a shop entrance, it’s more likely someone will trip over it. However, if it’s in an area that doesn’t get a lot of traffic, such as a back yard, tripping over it would be less likely
• Consequence = is the outcome of the hazardous event. If you tripped over a hole, there could be several possible outcomes; you might land on your feet with no damage at all, you might drop whatever you were carrying, or perhaps you could end up with a sprained ankle or even a fracture.

A good grasp of the terminology necessary to detail risk and hazards will help you to ensure your risk assessments are effective and accurate.

What steps are involved creating a risk assessment?

Likelihood Descriptor

Examples of hazards which should be listed [as introduced in part I] are:

• How people work: e.g. Handling/lifting, working at heights, long hours or lone workers
• Where people work: e.g. Fire hazards, dust, radiation or environmental factors
• What their work involves: e.g Equipment/mechanical, transport, electricity or biological materials

Once you have established a list of hazards, it is important to determine the likelihoods of each occurring. A useful scale to help grade this is shown below:

• HIGHLY UNLIKELY - Could only occur in exceptional circumstances
• UNLIKELY - May occur in time, very infrequent
• POSSIBLE - May occur occasionally
• PROBABLE - Likely to occur imminently or in the short term
• CERTAIN - Will occur or does regularly

Risk Consequence Review

The next step is a risk consequence review, this categorises the consequences of a risk from insignificant to catastrophic. To help you get to terms with the effect of each risk, the consequence review should look at the impact on quality, finance, agreed targets, safety, reputation and litigation. By consider these areas in turn, you can really get to grips with the extent a potential risk could pose to your business and personnel.

Risk Assessment Matrix

Taking time to get the above aspects correct is vital as they now come together to plot the risk on an assessment matrix. This matrix is then used to grade each risk – green being very low, orange and red being moderate to high (as shown below). This is a useful grading tool, as it helps establish priorities.

To evaluate a risk the formula is used: Risk = Likelihood x Consequence

Management of risk is a continuous process. Risk assessments should be reviewed before the start of any project as well as on regular basis and certainly on following an incident to ensure that the control measures remain satisfactory. In Part III of the series we will discuss control measures that are implemented to reduce the risk to an acceptable level.

We appreciate that getting to grips with health and safety can seem an overwhelming task. At CT Health & Safety, we take those daunting tasks and break them down to be manageable and achievable, with support at every stage.

We believe everyone should feel safe, secure and protected at work. Let us help you seamlessly integrate health and safety into your workplace today.

If you’re looking for further information about how to conduct risk assessments, CT Health & Safety can help you. To find out more, contact: 07956 074798 or clive@cthealthandsafety.com