National General Certificate in

The National Examination

Board in Occupational Safety
and Health (NEBOSH)
Occupational Health and Safety
Dominus Way,
Meridian Business Park,
Leicester LE19 1QW
Tel: +44 (0) 116 263 4700
Fax: +44 (0) 116 282 4000
Unit NG2: Risk assessment
Email: info@nebosh.org.uk
www.nebosh.org.uk
Guidance and information for learners
and Learning Partners
Version: 1
Specification date: October 2018
Publication date: October 2019
Registered Charity Number: 1010444
© NEBOSH. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
in any form, or by any means, electronic, electrostatic,
mechanical, photocopied or otherwise, without the express
permission in writing from NEBOSH.
Course Part 1 Guidance for learners
Overview
Contents 1.1 Introduction 4

1.2 Stages of the assessment 5

1.3 Location 11

1.4 Assessment time and tutor guidance 11

1.5 Assessment forms and submitting Unit NG2 for marking 12

1.6 Marking 13

1.7 Results 16

1.8 Resubmission in case of referral 16

Part 2 Guidance for Learning Partners

2.1 Practical assessment date 18

2.2 Location 18

2.3 Guidance on assessment completion 18

2.4 Assessment submission 18

2.5 A Learning Partner’s staff, family or friends taking the Unit NG2 assessment 19
 Part 1:
Guidance for learners
Part 1 Introduction When completing your risk assessment it can be
difficult to know how much detail is enough.
Guidance for The aim of this assessment is for you to practically
apply the knowledge and understanding that So here are some useful tips. Your risk assessment
students you have gained from your studies. To do this, should not be about creating huge amounts of
you will need to complete a risk assessment of paperwork, but should instead be about identifying
your workplace. Before you start the assessment, sensible and proportionate measures to control
you must have completed your studies of the the risks in your workplace. We want your risk
whole of the NG syllabus (elements 1 to 11). assessment to be realistic and the level of detail
to be proportionate to the level of risk in your
organisation. To help you with this exercise we
The stages of the assessment are as follows: have based this risk assessment format on the
Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) approach
Description
to risk assessment. You can refer to the risk
of the Priorities 3 Review, assessment guidance, examples and FAQs on
Risk
organisation actions with communicate
and methodology assessment justfification
the HSE website http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/
and check
used controlling-risks.htm and the completed example
provided by NEBOSH in the assessment pack.
We have also included in the forms approximate
The rest of this guidance tells you what you need word counts for each section. These word counts
to do to complete the assessments. The guidance should be used as a guide only and should not
also contains some helpful hints and tips (including be seen as an absolute minimum or maximum.
information on how to complete the various forms).
An assessment pack has been produced to provide
you with everything that you will need to complete
the assessment. This can be downloaded from
the NEBOSH website (www.nebosh.org.uk).

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Part 1 Stages of assessment You will need to include the following
information as a minimum:
Guidance for Description
Review, 1. the name of the organisation;
Priorities 3
students
of the
Risk
organisation actions with communicate 2. site location (you don’t need to give
and methodology assessment justfification and check
used the full address, just the general
location eg, Leicestershire);
You must use the headed tables in Part 1 3. how many workers are employed
of the assessment pack to complete the by the organisation;
description of the organisation and the
risk assessment methodology used. 4. a general description* of the organisation,
which must include products manufactured
Start by giving a clear and concise description of your or services provided, the types of activities
chosen organisation (normally the organisation you undertaken and shift patterns worked;
work for, but it doesn’t have to be). You can hide
the name and location of your organisation if you 5. a description of the area to be included
like (for confidentiality) by using false details, but in the risk assessment; and
everything else needs to be factual. You also need 6. any other relevant information eg, who
to think about the scope of the risk assessment. has the day-to-day responsibility for health
For example, are you going to look at the whole and safety in your organisation. If you feel
organisation or just a specific department/division there is nothing relevant here, you do not
etc? If you work for a large organisation, we need to include this in the description.
recommend that you concentrate on a part of
* The description of the organisation should be
the organisation or a specific activity or process.
detailed enough to ‘paint a picture’ for the examiner
If you are unsure, ask your tutor for advice.
(who may not be familiar with your industry) to allow
Your assessment is going to be marked by an them to understand what your organisation does.
examiner appointed by NEBOSH. The examiner For example, ‘garage-related activities’ is far too
will need a clear description of your organisation brief. Something like this would be better (extract
to allow them to judge whether your risk from the worked example in the assessment pack):
assessment is suitable and sufficient. If you provide
an unclear or incomplete description, this could
affect the marking of the risk assessment.

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 5

Part 1 …
NGG Ltd is a medium-sized garage with offices, vehicle
Guidance for repair shop and paint spray booth. The business does
students a lot of body repairs on vehicles involved in accidents
for insurance companies. Servicing and MOTs are also
carried out for members of the public. Typical activities
undertaken include moving spare parts from the stores
to the workshop area, engine repairs, activities relating
to servicing/MOTs, body repair, draining fuel/oil from
vehicles, spray booth activities (including the use of
paints that are solvent based). The garage operates
from 8am to 6pm on weekdays and is closed at the
weekends. Workers are only required to work 7 hours
per day so there are staggered start and finish times in
place.
…

You will then need to outline how you carried out the
risk assessment (methodology used). You will need to
include as a minimum:
• the sources of information that you consulted;
• who you spoke to; and
• how the hazards and controls were identified.
You may also include anything else that is relevant to
the completion of the risk assessment.

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 6

Part 1 Description
of the
Risk
Priorities 3 Review,

Guidance for organisation

and methodology assessment
actions with
justfification
communicate
and check
students
used

You must use the table in Part 2 of the assessment pack to complete the risk assessment.
You will now need to complete a risk assessment of your organisation.
You must find and record at least 10 different hazards that are taken from at least
5 different hazard categories. For the avoidance of doubt, hazard categories for this
assessment are the topic headings for Elements 5 – 11 of the NG syllabus as shown in Table 1:

Element Hazard categories

5 Noise; vibration; radiation; mental ill-health; violence at work; substance abuse at work

Work related upper-limb disorders (ergonomics, workstation design etc); manual

6 handling; load handling equipment

7 Hazardous substances

Health, welfare and work environment; working at height; confined spaces; lone
8 working; slips and trips; movement of people and vehicles in the workplace; work-related
driving

9 Work equipment and machinery

10 Fire

11 Electricity

Table 1

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 7

Part 1 Your risk assessment must include details on:
• the hazard and the hazard category (column 1)*;
Guidance for
• who may be harmed and how (column 2);
students • what you are already doing to control the hazard
(column 3)**;
• what further controls or actions might be needed
(column 4)** – remember you must take account
of the hierarchy of control and the principles of
prevention in deciding on further controls;
• what the timescales are for completion of each
action (column 5); and
• the role of the person responsible for completing
each action (column 6).
*Column numbers – please see Table 2.
**When you complete your risk assessment you will
see that columns 3 and 4 work together. If you are
already doing enough to control the risk, there will be
a lot of controls listed in column 3 but very few (if any)
in column 4 (you might even just note that no further
action is necessary). On the other-hand, if you have
very few controls in place, column 3 will contain very
little and column 4 will contain a lot more. Both of
these scenarios are fine because they are realistic.
So that you can get an idea of the level of detail
required and the way that columns 3 and 4 work
together, please see the example in Table 2 (this has
been extracted from the full example that is included in
the assessment pack).

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Part 1 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Column 6
Guidance for Hazard category and Who might be
hazard harmed and how?
What are you
already doing?
What further
controls/actions are
Timescales for Responsible person’s
further actions to be job role
students required? completed
(within...)
Vibration Workers in the Maintenance Monitoring system to 1 month Workshop Manager
workshop area programme in place be set up to ensure
Sanding and grinding for all hand-held that vibration tools
activities Excessive use of or equipment, including are not used for an
use of faulty hand- vibrating equipment excessive time
held tools such as disc
cutters, sanders and All workers are trained Look at rotas to 1 week Workshop Manager
grinders could lead to in the use of vibration ensure workers are
hand-arm-vibration hand-held tools moved between
(HAV) conditions such activities
as vibration white There is an ‘unwritten
finger rule’ that only tools Look into setting up 6 months Finance Director
that have been a health surveillance
designed to reduce programme for all
the risk of HAVs affected workers
should be purchased
Tool-box talks to be 6 months / ongoing Workshop Manager
held at least twice a
year on the effects of
vibration from hand-
held tools

Formalise the purchase 6 months Finance Director

policy to ensure that
only suitable equiment
is purchased to reduce
the risk of HAVs

Evaluation of the 1 month Finance Director and

level of our workers’ Workshop Manager
exposure to vibration
should be carried out
to ensure that the
daily exposure and
action values are not
being exceeded

Table 2

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 9

Part 1 Description
of the
Risk
Priorities 3 Review,
• Consideration of the likelihood AND severity
(taking account of current control measures)
Guidance for organisation
and methodology assessment
actions with
justfification
communicate
and check
of injury, ill-health or harm occurring. You will

students need to typically consider the types of injury,

used

ill-health or harm likely to be seen, the number

of workers at risk, how often the activity is
You must use the table in Part 3 of
carried out and how widespread the risk is,
the assessment pack to prioritise your
eg, does the same threat exist in other parts/
actions and justify your selection.
branches/divisions/sites of the organisation?
Once you have completed the risk assessment,
• Detail on how effective each action
which includes allocating actions, you must
is likely to be in controlling the risk.
pick the 3 highest priority/most urgent actions
Here you should describe:
needing attention. These actions can be
associated with the same or different hazards/ >> the intended impact of each action;
hazard categories; the important thing is that they >> justification for the timescale for
need to be your highest priorities for action. completion for each action; and
You must give a justification for why you think >> whether you think the action
these are the highest priority/most urgent will fully control the risk.
actions. Your justification must include:
• Moral, legal and financial arguments
for all actions. Your legal argument must
reference relevant UK-specific legislation where
applicable, eg, when talking about the control
of hazardous substances you should reference
relevant duties under the Control of Substances
Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002.
Please note that you are not expected to include
detailed descriptions of the Regulations. You
just need to say what the duties under the
regulations are. For example, you could say that
your employer has a duty to eliminate or reduce
risks to health and safety from noise at work.

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 10

Part 1 Description
of the
Risk
Priorities 3 Review,
If you do not have access to a workplace
please speak to your Learning Partner. Your
Guidance for organisation
and methodology assessment
actions with
justfification
communicate
and check
Learning Partner will help you to make
arrangements for the assessment to be
students
used

carried out at other suitable premises.

You must use the tables in Part 4 of the Before carrying out the assessment, you must
assessment pack to complete the review, speak to the management at the premises to
communicate and check exercise. ensure that you can carry out the inspection
without endangering your own health and safety
The final part of the assessment is to:
(so that advice can be given on any restricted
1. set a realistic review date for the risk assessment areas, whether PPE must be worn, etc).
and say why you have chosen that review date;
2. indicate how the findings of the risk assessment
Assessment time and tutor guidance
are to be communicated (verbal or written and
the methods to be used, eg, email, noticeboards) The time needed to complete the assessment is
and who needs to know the information; and not restricted. We do, however, recommend that
you take around 3 hours to complete all four
3. indicate how you will follow up on
parts of the assessment. We feel that the 3 hours
the risk assessment to check that the
will allow you to show your understanding of the
actions have been carried out.
assessment requirements and complete a good
quality risk assessment. Please note that the 3
Location hours is for guidance; you may choose to take
more or less time to complete your assessment.
The assessment must be carried out in your
own workplace. This means that your risk We advise that you discuss your approach with
assessment will be realistic and provide added your tutor after reading this guidance. They can
value for you and your organisation. Your give you advice on whether you are ‘heading in the
workplace should be large enough to provide a right direction’ – for example, they may comment
sufficient range of hazard categories/hazards. on whether you have chosen a suitable workplace
or situation that will give enough scope to be able
to tackle this assessment properly. Do not submit
drafts of your work to your tutor as they are not
allowed to pre-mark or comment on specific details.

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Part 1 Assessment forms and submitting
Unit NG2 for marking
Before submitting your assessment for marking,
you may wish to use the checklist included in
Guidance for Your assessment can either be hand written
the Assessment Pack. This breaks the assessment

students or completed electronically. The assessment

down into the various stages. It should help you
to make sure that you meet the minimum criteria
pack contains two sets of forms; one
for the assessment (see the ‘Marking’ section
for a hand written assessment and the
for further details). Please note that the checklist
other for an electronic assessment.
does not need to be submitted for marking.
Electronic forms
Submission
When you start your assessments you must
Your assessment must be submitted to your
double-click the page footer and insert your
Learning Partner electronically as a PDF (portable
learner number and name on the first sheet. The
document format) document. If you do not know
page numbering will change automatically as you
how to, or are unable to, produce a pdf document,
increase the number of pages that you use.
please ask your Learning Partner for advice.
Hand written forms
Your Learning Partner will tell you the date that
You must ensure that your learner number and
they need to receive your assessment. Once
name are written on the top of every form.
received, your assessment will be upload to
Additionally, you must all ensure that you
NEBOSH for marking. If you fail to submit your
include the page numbers at the top of every
assessment to your Learning Partner by the date
sheet where indicated eg, page 2 of 8.
requested, you will be marked as ‘absent’.
We would recommend that you submit
electronically, but understand that there will be
occasions when this is not possible. The headings
in both sets of forms are the same, so feel free
to choose the format that is best for you.

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 12

Part 1 Marking

Guidance for Your assessment will be marked by an

examiner appointed by NEBOSH.
students You will receive a ‘Pass’ or ‘Refer’ for your
assessment. If you are referred, you can re-
submit your assessment (see ‘Resubmission
if you have been referred’).
The marking criteria used by the examiner is
shown in Table 3. These give the minimum
standard that you must achieve in order for
your assessment to receive a ‘Pass’ result. If
any of the minimum criteria are not met then
your assessment will receive a ‘Refer’ result.
For example, you will receive a ‘Refer’ result if you:
• do not include a methodology;
• include 9 hazards from 5 hazard categories;
• include 11 hazards from 4 hazard categories;
• include 10 hazards but do not state the
hazard category for all hazards;
• prioritise two actions;
• include how the risk assessment will
be communicated but do not say who
needs to know the information.

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 13

Part 1 Minimum standard required for a Unit NG2 ‘Pass’
Guidance for Assessment section Marking criteria
students The description must be clear and concise so that the examiner is able to understand what
types of hazard may be present in the learner’s workplace. The description must include:
• the name of the organisation;
• the site location;
Part 1: Description • how many workers are employed;
of the organisation • a general description of the organisation which must include products manufactured/
and risk assessment services provided, the types of activities undertaken and the shift patterns worked;
methodology used
• a description of the area to be included in the risk assessment.
The learner does not need to include ‘any other relevant information’ in the description as there
may be nothing to include here.
The methodology must include as a minimum: sources of information consulted, who was
consulted and how the learner decided on additional control measures.
There are a minimum of 10 hazards taken from at least 5 hazard categories.
All columns in the table have been completed with relevant and realistic detail ie,
• the hazard category and the hazards found;
• who might be harmed and how;
• what is already being done (existing control measures)*;
Part 2: Risk assessment
• what further controls/actions are required* (with these being sensible and proportionate)
• timescales for implementation of the additional control measures for each action, with these
generally being reasonable/appropriate; and
• the job role of the person responsible for each action.
*See table 2 for the level of detail required for these columns.

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 14

Part 1 Minimum standard required for a Unit NG2 ‘Pass’
Guidance for Assessment section Marking criteria
students 3 actions* have been selected.
For each action the following have been included:
Part 3: Prioritise
• moral, legal and financial arguments (the legal arguments must be based
3 actions with
on UK legislation);
justification for
the selection • consideration of the likelihood and severity for each action from the same
hazard category; and
• description of how effective each action is likely to be in controlling the risk.
The learner must give a realistic review date for the risk assessment and say why they have
chosen that date.
Part 4: Review, The learner must indicate how the risk assessment findings will be communicated and include
communicate who needs to know the information.
and check
The learner must indicate how they will follow up on the risk assessment to check that the
identified actions have been carried out.

Table 3

*Don’t provide more than 3 actions as only the first three actions will be marked.

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 15

Part 1 Results

Guidance for We aim to issue results within 50 working

days of the date of the assessment.
students
Resubmission if you have been
referred in the assessment
You can only achieve a ‘Pass’ or ‘Refer’ for the
assessment. If you need to resubmit you will
need to register for the assessment again and pay
the appropriate fee. You are not limited on the
number of times that you can resubmit the practical
for marking. However, you must remember that
both of the unit assessments (NG1 and NG2)
must be passed within a five-year period.

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 16

 Part 2:
Guidance for Learning Partners
Part 2 This section of the guidance either expands on the
detail in Part 1 or gives specific information for
Guidance on assessment completion
Guidance Learning Partners that is not relevant to learners.
You may give your learners guidance on whether
they are ‘heading in the right direction’ – for
for Learning example, you may comment on whether they have
Partners Practical assessment date chosen a suitable workplace or situation that will
give sufficient scope to achieve the necessary breadth
You can set up the practical assessment for ‘On
and depth of content required. You must not carry
Demand’ assessments on any date that you
out a pre-mark prior to submission to NEBOSH.
choose; it is not dependent on the date of the
written examination (Unit NG1). For Standard Date
assessments, the submission (upload date) will be Assessment submission
the same as the written examination (NG1). Please
You must tell your learners the date that
see ‘Assessment submission’ for further details.
you will require their completed assessment
by. You must allow sufficient time for the
Location upload and the following rules apply:

The assessment should normally be carried out Date from which

Latest date for assessments
in your learner’s own workplace. If your learner Assessment type assessments can be
to be uploaded to NEBOSH
uploaded to NEBOSH
does not have access to a workplace, you must
help the learner make arrangements to carry out The date specified on the
On demand
The day after the examination request form
the practical assessment at suitable premises. registration closing date 10 working days following the
If you are running the practical in this way, Standard date
written assessment NG1
you should contact the Customer Experience
team at NEBOSH for advice and approval. Assessments must be uploaded in PDF format via
the Course Provider Interface (CPI). You will need
You should ensure that, before the learner
to click on the ‘Practical Upload’ tab; this will allow
carries out the assessment, they speak to the
you to either upload the assessments or, if the
management at the premises. This is to ensure that
learner fails to submit their completed assessment
the learner can carry out the inspection without
to you on time, mark the learner as ‘absent’.
endangering their own health and safety (so that
advice can be given on any restricted areas etc).

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 18

Part 2 A Learning Partner’s staff, family or
friends taking the Unit NG2 assessment
Guidance You must declare in writing to NEBOSH any staff
for Learning member, spouse, family or other close personal
Partners relationship with any learner taking the NG2
assessment. You must refer to the instructions
given in the document ‘Instructions for Conducting
Examinations’ for further information.

NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety 19