Risk Assessment Procedure

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Risk Assessment Procedure
1. Introduction
It is a general legal requirement of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999)
to carry out risk assessments. There are also specific requirements under other regulations to carry
out specialised assessments, for example, manual handling, the use of chemicals, lasers, radiation,
noise and machinery etc.
The following procedure should be adopted for general risk assessments of an area, task, process
or activity. It is based on the HSE guidance “Five Steps to Risk Assessment”.
Risk assessment should be undertaken systematically so as to ensure that all significant hazards
are identified, along with those persons at risk, the likelihood of each hazard occurring, and the likely
severity were the hazard to occur. Where appropriate, adequate control measures must be
decided upon, using the hierarchy of risk. These control measures must then be implemented to
ensure the risk mitigation is complete “as far as is reasonably practicable”.

2. Definitions
Hazards: A hazard is a potential source of harm or adverse health effect on a person or persons.
Risk: A risk is the potential (likelihood) that a person may be harmed and suffer adverse health
effects (severity) if exposed to a hazard.
Control/Mitigating Measure: Control/mitigating measures include actions that can be taken to
reduce the likelihood of a risk being realised or reduce the severity of a risk if it was realised.

3. Responsibilities

3.1 Dean of School or Head of Support Department

The Dean of School or Head of Department will ensure, personally or through delegation to a
competent person, that suitable and sufficient assessments of risks arising from their activities,
processes or other, are performed and the significant findings recorded. The Dean of School or
Head of Department will also ensure, through appointed competent persons, that the relevant
information contained in these assessments is disseminated to the appropriate persons, and that
the mitigation/control measures are adequately implemented.

3.2 Employees, students, visitors, contractors and others

It is the responsibility of employees, students, visitors, contractors and others to participate as
requested in the risk assessment process. In addition, any recommended control measures must
be implemented.

3.3 The Occupational Health and Environmental Safety Department

The Robert Gordon University, Occupational Health and Environmental Safety Department will
ensure that an adequate risk assessment system is in place. This will contain the risk assessment
policy, procedure, example form, advice and training for key people within Schools and
Departments on the RGU system. In addition, the Occupational Health and Environmental Safety
Department will source and help to arrange additional risk assessment training where it is required.

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4. Risk Assessment

4.1 Arrangements for implementation

Assessments will be recorded on the Robert Gordon University Risk Assessment Template or a pre-
agreed variation of this form, and in accordance with The Robert Gordon University risk assessment
procedure.

The exceptions to this would be where a specialised risk assessment is required, for example using
lasers or radiation, COSHH, fire, DSE (workstation). This list is not exhaustive. The School or
Department may amend the form to suit a specific technical risk, providing the format is agreed and
recorded by the Occupational Health and Environmental Safety Department.

Records will be held by the School or Department, in the area to which they apply, and will be
accessible for employees or students for information purposes, and for auditing purposes.

4.2 Important Details

Importantly the first details recorded on the risk assessment should be:

• company name

• description of what is being assessed

• the name of the person(s) carrying out the assessment

• the date of assessment

• the assessor(s) signature(s)

• suggested review date (although this may be sooner, should any factor change)

4.3 Identifying Hazards

An examination of the work area, task, activity or process should be undertaken by those who are
involved or have experience of the subject matter, and should initially involve listing all associated
hazards (a hazard is something which has the potential to cause harm, and could occur):

Examples of hazards:
• Chemicals and substances Dust / • Noise
Fume inhalation
• Lighting
• Electricity
• Slipping / Tripping hazards
• Fire
• Vehicles
• Machinery
• Falls from height
• Manual Handling
• Using Display Screen Equipment

4.4 Identify those at risk:

Next the persons carrying out the risk assessment need to identify those persons at particular risk
from the particular work area, task, activity or process.
Some examples of the type of persons likely to be at risk, depending on the specifics of the
assessment, may include:

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 Who? What?
Employees Equipment
Trainees Property
Students Materials
Contractors Environment
General Public
Visitors
In deciding who or what may be harmed, the assessor is beginning the process of assessing the
risk.

4.5 Assess the risk

The assessors then need to identify the likelihood that the hazard could occur, and the probable
severity, were the hazard to occur:
“It is probable that a chef may cut their finger on a kitchen knife whilst cutting vegetables and the
severity would likely be a minor injury (a minor cut or laceration). So, this should be recorded in the
assessment.”
The assessors should use the Robert Gordon University key detailed below, for measuring
likelihood and severity:

Likelihood Severity

Certain Probable death of 1 or more persons

Probably Severe Injury, Loss of Limb, Severe Burns
Possible Minor injury, cuts, bruising, minor
Unlikely No ill effect
Further examples or advice on assessing the risk is available from the Occupational Health and
Environmental Safety Department.

4.6 Identify control measures that are already in place

The assessor then needs to identify control measures that have already been implemented. For
example, if a manual handling task is being assessed, the assessor may note that the load has
already been broken down in to smaller amounts to make smaller lighter loads.
Once all existing control measures have been noted, the assessor then needs to decide if the level
of risk is at the lowest possible level, and whether this is tolerable. If the level of risk is not tolerable,
additional control measures will require to be implemented to reduce the risk level further.
If the risk cannot be reduced to a tolerable level, then the area, task, activity or process must not
be carried out and must be re-designed or alternate means of operating decided upon.

4.7 Control the risk

Any intolerable risks identified in the assessment should be eliminated or reduced “as far as is
reasonably practicable” to an acceptable level. This should involve considering any current risk
control measures and assessing whether any further measures can be taken to reduce the risk.
The following hierarchy of risk control should be used:
Eliminate
The best way to reduce a risk is to remove the hazard. If the hazard is significant, eliminate it at

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 source and remove any risk attached – e.g. do not do the task, outsource or negate the risk by
other means.
Substitute
If removing the risk completely cannot be achieved, the hazard should be substituted for
something which presents less of a risk - e.g. cleaning products with bleach can be harmful. An
alternative product without bleach might suffice.
Contain
Preventing access to a hazard - e.g. using a guard over a sharp blade or keeping hazardous
chemicals locked in a suitable container - is important when removing the hazard completely, is
not practical.
Reduce exposure
Reducing exposure to a hazard means that the likelihood of harm occurring is less, and so reduces
the risk - e.g. computer users can lower the risk of upper limb disorders by doing tasks away from
their PC regularly.
Training and supervision
The provision of information, training and supervision will help to make sure people follow
procedures and are aware of the risks when working with hazards.
These measures only work together with other control.
Personal protective equipment (PPE)
PPE should only be considered as a last resort, once the risk level has already been reduced
adequately.
Welfare facilities
Facilities for washing or first aid should be supplied.
The assessment should be recorded on an RGU Risk Assessment Form and should be held in an
accessible place for those who are involved in the process. The form also acts as an improvement
action plan and should be used for tracking implementation of control measures. The findings
should be made known to the employees it affects and information / training must be given.
It is not necessary for the Occupational Health and Environmental Safety team to hold records
centrally. However, an audit programme has been established at which time access to local
records will be a prerequisite. The assessments should therefore be available for audit purposes.

4.8 Review
A risk assessment must be reviewed if there is any significant change to the area, activity/task,
process or other significant element, or if there is any other reason to suspect it is no longer valid.
It is good practice to review assessments regularly to ensure they are still accurate and controls
remain in place.

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