How to write a risk assessment: writing a risk assessment in five steps, and what to write a risk assessment about
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Writing a risk assessment is a five step exercise that has not changed in decades: look for the hazards, decide who might be harmed and how, evaluate the risk and decide on controls, record the significant findings, and review it when something changes. The reason so many assessments are poor is not that the method is hard but that the first step is done at a desk. Hazards are found by walking the job, and an assessment written without that walk is a list of things that are true about the trade rather than about the work.
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Walk the job and write down what you see
Access and egress, the surfaces, the services, the height, the dust and noise, the neighbours and the public, the weather, and the things other trades have left. Write a risk assessment about the job you are going to do in the place you are going to do it, not about the trade in general.
Decide who is harmed and what you will change
For each hazard, name the people at risk, including visitors and the public, and then write the control you will actually apply. The order that works is eliminate, substitute, engineer, organise, and only then protective equipment, because equipment is the control most easily left in the van.
Record the significant findings and set a review point
Writing a risk assessment ends with a record: the hazards, the controls, the further actions with owners and dates. Then say when it will be looked at again. A change of sequence, of crew, of season or of site condition is a review trigger, and the version in force should be the one the crew was briefed on.
How to write a risk assessment: common questions
How long should a risk assessment be? As long as the significant hazards require. One side is common and adequate for most small jobs. Length is not evidence of quality, and a reviewer reading fifteen generic pages will trust it less than two specific ones.
Who is competent to write one? Somebody who understands the work, the hazards and the controls, which on a small job is usually the person running it. Competence is about knowledge of the work rather than a certificate, though for specialised hazards such as asbestos or confined spaces it does mean formal training.
When does an assessment need reviewing? When the work, the site, the people or the equipment change, after any incident or near miss, and periodically in any case. The practical rule is that if you would brief the crew differently today, the assessment is out of date.
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