Health & Safety Risk Assessment Checklist Template

What the Health & Safety Risk Assessment Checklist Covers

1. 1
   Phase 1

   Phase 1: Plan the Assessment

   5 tasks

   Decide what the assessment covers and gather the records before the walk-round. A walk-round without the accident book and last year’s actions finds only what is visible on the day.

   • Record the workplace, the assessor and the manager who signs off — the site or activity assessed, the start date and how many people the employer employs
   • Define what the assessment covers — the areas, activities and shifts in scope, including night, weekend and off-site work, and the topics that have their own assessment, such as fire
   • Pull the previous assessment and its open actions — which actions were completed, which slipped and which were never started
   • Gather the records the walk-round needs — the accident book, ill-health and near-miss reports, manufacturers’ instructions, safety data sheets, and inspection and maintenance records
   • Arrange time with workers and their safety representatives — supervisors, the people who do each job and any safety representative, so the walk-round hears from the people who know the work
2. 2
   Phase 2

   Phase 2: Identify Hazards

   7 tasks

   • Walk round the workplace — look at how people work, how plant and equipment are used, which chemicals and substances are used and the general state of the premises
   • Include non-routine work — maintenance, cleaning, breakdowns, changes in production cycles and work done only at night or at weekends
   • Talk to workers about the hazards they see — ask what feels unsafe, what causes aches and pains, and where the written procedure is not followed and why
   • Look back at accident and ill-health records — they show the less obvious hazards, such as repeated strains from the same task
   • Check manufacturers’ instructions and safety data sheets — for the hazards they spell out and the precautions they say to take
   • Think about hazards to health, not only to safety — manual handling, chemicals, noise, vibration and the causes of work-related stress
   • List every hazard found — one line each, with where it is found and how it was found, so the next phases can work through them in order
3. 3
   Phase 3

   Phase 3: Decide Who Might Be Harmed and How

   7 tasks

   For each hazard, think about how employees, contractors, visitors or members of the public might be harmed. Some groups need particular thought, and the law names several of them.

   • Identify which employees each hazard could harm — by role, task and shift, and how: a crushed foot, a back injury, dermatitis or hearing loss
   • Consider contractors, visitors and members of the public — delivery drivers, cleaners, maintenance contractors, agency staff and people passing the site
   • Consider new and expectant mothers — where women of childbearing age work, the assessment must include risks to a new or expectant mother or her baby
   • Consider young workers under 18 — assess before they start, taking particular account of their inexperience, lack of awareness of risks and immaturity
   • Consider lone workers — anyone working without close or direct supervision: how they keep in touch, what happens if something goes wrong, and whether the work needs a second person
   • Consider workers with particular requirements — disabled workers, migrant workers whose first language is not English, and people new to the job
   • Record who might be harmed and how for each hazard — against the hazard references from Phase 2
4. 4
   Phase 4

   Phase 4: Assess the Risks

   5 tasks

   • Record what you are already doing to control each risk — the controls you saw in place on the walk-round, not only the ones written in procedures
   • Check the existing controls actually work — guards fitted, PPE worn, training records current, inspections done and defects reported
   • Rate each risk on one scale — how likely harm is and how serious it could be, with the existing controls in place
   • Compare the ratings with your accident and near-miss history — a hazard rated low that keeps causing injuries has been rated too low
   • Agree the ratings with the people who do the work — a supervisor and a safety representative check that the ratings match real practice
5. 5
   Phase 5

   Phase 5: Control the Risks

   6 tasks

   First ask whether the hazard can be removed altogether. If it cannot, control the risk so that harm is unlikely, working down the hierarchy of control with PPE as the last resort.

   • Ask whether each hazard can be removed altogether — stop the task, do it another way, or remove the substance or equipment that causes it
   • Work down the hierarchy of control for the rest — redesign the job, replace the materials, machinery or process, organise the work to reduce exposure, put practical measures in place, and provide PPE last
   • Decide what further action is reasonably practicable — balance the level of risk against the money, time or trouble needed to control it
   • Make the quick fixes straight away — a blocked aisle, a missing guard or a leaking container: fix it now and record it
   • Write the action plan — each further action with who needs to carry it out and when it is needed by, the most serious risks first
   • Rate the risk that remains once the actions are done — on the same scale, and record whether any risk is still high; this answer switches on Phase 6
6. 6
   Phase 6 — If Needed

   Phase 6: Stop or Restrict High-Risk Work

   5 tasks

   Shown only when a risk is still high once the planned controls are in place. The work stops, or carries on only under restrictions, until a control brings the risk down.

   • Stop or restrict the work — decide which activities stop and which carry on only under restrictions, from when, and tell the people who do them
   • Put interim controls in place — extra supervision, an exclusion zone, trained staff only or fewer people exposed, until a lasting control is found
   • Find a control that brings the risk down — go back up the hierarchy: can the job, the equipment or the process change, and is specialist advice needed
   • Manager decides whether the work may restart — on the evidence that the risk is no longer high, recorded with any conditions
   • Brief the team before the work restarts — the new controls, any conditions, and who to tell if a control is not working
7. 7
   Phase 7

   Phase 7: Record Your Findings

   5 tasks

   With five or more employees, the law requires the significant findings to be written down. Whatever the size of the business, the HSE warns against relying on paperwork alone: the priority is controlling the risks in practice.

   • Write up the significant findings — the hazards, who might be harmed and how, what you are already doing and the further action, with who and by when
   • Record any group of employees found to be especially at risk — shown only when the employer has five or more employees; for example young workers, new and expectant mothers or lone workers, with the controls for each
   • Manager signs off the assessment and action plan — before it is shared, with the decision and any conditions recorded
   • Share the findings with employees — the risks found and the measures that control them, in a form people understand, and with their safety representatives
   • Tell contractors and other employers on site about the risks to their people — the risks your work creates for them and the measures you have taken
8. 8
   Phase 8

   Phase 8: Act on the Findings & Review the Controls

   5 tasks

   • Track each action to its due date — follow up each owner before the date, and escalate a slipped action rather than letting it drift
   • Close each action with evidence — a photo, a training record or a contractor’s certificate attached to this task
   • Check the new controls are working — watch the work and ask the people doing it, a few weeks after each control goes in
   • Update the risk assessment record — with every change made, so the written record matches the workplace
   • Set the review date and the triggers for an earlier review — a change of staff, process, substances or equipment, an accident or near miss, or a problem workers report