Risk Assessment: An Amicus Guide For Members

Risk Assessment guide 14/1/05 10:00 am Page b
Risk
Assessment
An Amicus guide
for members
Risk Assessment guide 14/1/05 10:00 am Page 1
Contents
Introduction 3
Standards of safety in the Amicus 5
What is risk assessment? 6
The Health and Safety Executive’s approach 7
Methods of risk assessment 8
Amicus steps to risk assessment 11
From risk assessment to risk prevention 12
Prevention priorities 13
What the law says and how to carry out assessments 14
Management regulations: what your employer must do 15
A suitable and sufficient risk assessment 18
Get it in writing 19
Competent persons 20
Your right to examine assessments 22
Other laws that require risk assessment 23
Hazardous substances 24
HSE’s seven steps to substitution 26
New hazards 27
What are the hazards in your workplace? 28
Does the assessment cover all the releveant factors? 30

1
Assessing your employer’s action plan 32
Record keeping 33
Review 34
Assessing risk assessments 35
Union involvement 38
Consultation where the Amicus is not recognised 39
Health and safety inspectors: what they do

and how to find them 40
Risk assessment checklist 42
Amicus Guide to Risk Assessment
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■ INTRODUCTION
This guide to risk assessment highlights the purpose and pitfalls of
workplace risk assessments and aims to help safety representatives
raise awareness among Amicus members.
It will also help Amicus safety representatives to keep a close eye on

the management of health and safety in the workplace and ensure
that good policies are matched by good practice.
Risk assessment means identifying the hazards in the workplace and

assessing the likelihood that these hazards will cause harm to
employees and others. It is part of the systematic approach that
employers are now required by law to adopt in order to manage
health and safety effectively. It helps spot the prevention or control
measures needed to protect workers and the public from harm.
Employers are obliged by law to ensure that all aspects of all jobs
have been vetted for hazards and that ‘reasonably practicable’
measures have been taken to ensure that workers are not put at
risk. But remember, no one knows the problems of a job better than
the worker who has to do it.
If risk assessments are done correctly they can mean that workers
are properly informed about their working conditions, the risks and
how to avoid them. It is the safety representative’s job to make sure
this happens. However, while safety representatives can be involved
in risk assessments, and should always be asked to comment on
them, the responsibility of doing a risk assessment lies with
management.
No workplace risks are inevitable. A properly managed workplace

should be healthy and safe. And it is the employer’s responsibility to
identify the risks and to take reasonably practicable measures to
minimize them.
Too little regard for the health, safety and welfare of staff can mean
that trained staff go sick or are forced to retire early. This isn’t good
for the worker and isn’t good for the organisation.
Employers should ensure their staff are safe at work, and risk
assessments should tell them what needs to be done to keep things 3
that way. So what is going wrong?
The Amicus believes that badly done risk assessments mean

problems are underestimated, missed or just plain ignored. Which is
why the Amicus is demanding that employers make proper risk
assessments and take them seriously.
4
■ STANDARDS TO SAFETY
IN AMICUS
1. Use your rights. Safety representatives have legal rights to
information and to be consulted about any health and safety
matters in the workplace.
2. No assessment, no work. Employers should not ask anyone to

undertake work unless that particular job or function has been
the subject of a risk assessment and the worker expected to do
the job has been informed of how to do the job safely. All
workers have the right to refuse work that presents ‘a serious and
imminent danger’.
3. Inspect. Inspections by safety representatives, surveys, ‘risk

mapping’, or reviews of sickness absence and accident patterns
and workplace health surveillance can identify the jobs causing
the problems.
4. Get support. Amicus regional officers, backed by Amicus National

Health and Safety Services, who deal with thousands of safety
enquiries each year – you need never feel alone!
5. Training. Amicus safety representative training and other courses

mean that many representatives have more safety knowledge
than their managers.
5
■ WHAT IS RISK ASSESSMENT?

Risk assessment is a simple concept. It is the process of identifying
what hazards exist in a workplace and how likely these hazards are
to cause harm to workers and others, in order to decide what
prevention or control measures are needed.
There are various ways of assessing what the level of risk is, and
they are dealt with later in this booklet. However, they all involve
making judgments about how acceptable a risk is. Management will
sometimes claim that risk assessment is a scientific process, but their
decisions are based on values that the workers who take the risks
may not share.
Amicus representatives have used risk assessments to achieve better

working conditions, more resources for health and safety and for
greater involvement in health and safety issues. However, none of
this has happened by chance. The union has had to make sure that
risk assessments deal with the issues which concern members
promptly and thoroughly.
There is no set way of doing risk assessments and employers can and
do adopt a mixture of approaches. What is essential to remember as
a safety rep is that risk assessments should be systematic and
thorough and that they look at what happens in real workplaces,
not what the employer thinks ought to happen.
This means talking to the people who do the jobs and have practical
understanding of the hazards and risks involved. It means observing
what goes on at first hand, not just sitting at a desk reading
manuals. The test of a good risk assessment is whether it enables
the employer to identify what the risks are and what they need to
do to prevent or control those risks.
6
■ THE HSE’S APPROACH

The Health and Safety Executive has described the basic steps of
making risk assessments in a free publication, Five Steps to Risk
Assessment.
This pamphlet provides simple advice on risk assessment, aimed at

small businesses. It is a useful starting point for doing risk
assessments in any workplace, providing a systematic approach and
a form.
■ The five steps can be summarised as follows:

1. Look for and list the hazards.
2. Decide who might be harmed and how.
3. Evaluate the risks arising from the hazards and decide whether
existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be
done.
4. Record the findings.
5. Review the assessment from time to time and revise it if
necessary.
A methodical, step-by-step approach is essential and Five Steps to

Risk Assessment is a useful start. However, Amicus believes that it
should only be used as a starting point. In most organisations a
more in-depth assessment is needed more regularly than the
pamphlet suggests. The approach it suggests is really only suitable
for small organisations where there are no major hazards.
7
■ METHODS OF RISK
ASSESSMENT
An employer might use a risk assessment to search for the hazards,
jobs, work locations or management issues which could leave
workers at risk.
Employers could look at:

Hazards For example, electrical safety, fire safety, manual handling,
hazardous substances, work with VDUs, risk factors for repetitive
strain injury, stress, lone working or violence.
Tasks For example, cleaning, maintenance work, installation of plant

or dealing with the public.
Locations For example, laboratories, offices, libraries or work

off-site.
Organisational factors For example, staffing policies, systems of

work, equipment-purchasing policies, consultation and participation,
management techniques or working hours.
In identifying hazards the employer needs to look at accident

and sickness records to see what problems have been reported in
the past.
There are various ways of assessing the risk once a hazard has been
identified. The regulations make it clear that no one method will
suit all circumstances, but whatever method is used must be
‘suitable and sufficient’.
The simplest method is just ranking the risk and giving it a score, for
example:
0 = no risk 1 = slight risk of not very serious injury
2 = moderate risk (more people likely to be injured or more
serious injuries likely to occur)
3 = high risk (significant chance of serious injury or death)
What this does is look at the severity of the risk using a method that
the textbooks call ‘numerical quantification’. This is very subjective
8 and has in-built assumptions about whether it is worth remedying
‘slight risks’ or even relatively high risks if they affect few workers.
Another system is using a chart called a matrix. Along one side of

the chart will be the likelihood of something happening (such as an
electric shock or a fall) and along the other side is the level of harm
that will come from the risk if it happens (for example a bruise,
long-term illness). The chart can have as many steps as you like, but
most use either three, five or seven levels. The likelihood of
something happening is then multiplied by the degree of harm it
will cause and a decision on whether to take any action is made on
the basis of how high a score you get. This method has the
advantage of being simple to use and easy to understand, but is a
bit mechanical and the criteria used are very subjective. It also does
not take into account the number of workers involved.
A 5-level matrix might look like this:
HARM 5 5 10 15 20 25
4 4 8 12 16 20
3 3 6 9 12 15
2 2 4 6 8 10
1 1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
LIKELIHOOD
The scoring might go like this:
CATEGORY HARM LIKELIHOOD

1 non-injury almost impossible
2 first aid unlikely
3 < 3 days possible
4 > 3 days likely
5 major injury almost certain
9
More sophisticated systems build in other factors such as the cost of

any accident. An example of this is the risk calculator, which is
widely used in industry. Similarly, the methods used in ‘high risk’
industries such as nuclear power plants and chemical factories –
known as HAZOP – are extremely specialised systems that require a
detailed knowledge. These are covered by regulations dealing with
major accident hazards and nuclear installations.
The purpose of all these systems is to help employers prioritise the

risks that need to be tackled first. They are not intended as an exact
science and should only be used as a guide.
What all the systems have in common is that they put a value on
people’s health. No system will claim it can remove risk. Instead it
will attempt to reduce the risk to ‘as low as is reasonably practical’.
However what is reasonable to management may not be reasonable
to you or your members. Usually decisions are based on the cost of
putting things right, and the basis on which these decisions are
made are totally arbitrary.
The most important first step is to find out what system your
employer uses. Make sure you understand it and be prepared to
question the assumptions that are being made. You can also ask for
training on it. Do not be afraid to challenge the findings of such
schemes if you disagree with the results.
It is very important that health and safety representatives are aware

of the limitations of risk assessments and use their rights to
challenge any shortcomings.
Despite all the paperwork and charts that are often generated, risk
assessment is an imprecise affair. Rough estimates of risk might be
presented as fact. What is presented as an ‘acceptable’ level of risk
might be far from acceptable to those asked to take these risks.
For example, suppose a ‘nuisance’ dust is assessed as causing no

long-term health effects or debilitating short-term health problems.
It is likely that there would be little priority placed on sorting it out.
But any dust in the workplace is an irritant – physical and mental –

and affects the body’s ability to deal with infections, leaving a
10 worker more vulnerable to coughs and colds. This shouldn’t be ‘part
of the job’ – the risk assessment should recognise this and include
steps to remedy it.
■ AMICUS STEPS TO RISK

ASSESSMENT
Amicus step-by-step approach should ensure that risk assessments in
your workplace are worth the paper they are written on.
Management should:
a) Set up a programme of risk assessments.

b) Consult safety representatives about the appointment of
‘competent persons’.
c) Appoint ‘competent people’.
d) Decide on methods and approach.
e) Identify any other specific health and safety legislation, which
applies.
f) Collect information.
g) Consult safety representatives and employees about work and
perceived hazards.
h) Observe what happens in practice.
i) Identify hazards.
j) Identify the harm that could arise from the hazards.
k) Identify those at risk.
l) Identify how they might be harmed.
m) Evaluate the likelihood of the harm occurring.
n) Evaluate the likely severity of the harm.
o) Evaluate the likely numbers who could be harmed.
p) Identify the control measures already in place, including
information, instruction and training.
q) Evaluate the effectiveness of the control measures.
r) Decide what more needs to be done to eliminate or control
risks, in accordance with the accepted priorities of risk
prevention and control measures.
s) Record the assessments.
t) Provide safety representatives with copies of the assessments
and supporting information.
u) Draw up an action plan and prioritise risks to be tackled.
v) Draw up a timetable for completion of action.
w) Allocate financial and staff resources for carrying out the
action plan.
x) Implement measures.
y) Monitor the effectiveness of control measures and review the
risk assessments at agreed regular intervals and whenever 11
changes require it.
■ FROM RISK ASSESSMENT TO

RISK PREVENTION
Don’t let a risk assessment be a carefully filled-out, filed and
forgotten piece of paper. The purpose of risk assessments is to
enable the employer to identify the preventive and protective
measures needed – and then to take them. So risk assessments
should be seen as just the first step in deciding a programme of
action, identifying the problems and setting out a clear timetable
for remedying them.
The purpose of the risk assessment is to make sure that something

gets done to prevent or control the risk. This means removing the
hazard from the workplace altogether or substituting a safer
alternative, whether this is a piece of equipment, a substance or a
way of working. We all often forget this.
The first aim must always be to remove the hazard. If this is not
possible then employers must set up control measures according to
established principles of good occupational health practice and the
general principles of prevention laid down in the Management
Regulations. If an employer claims that a risk assessment has been
done and the assessment says there is no problem, insist on seeing a
copy of the written record of the assessment.
Safety representatives are entitled to their own opinions about the

seriousness of the risk and the suitability or effectiveness of control
measures. Likewise, representatives should question assessments
that say nothing can be done to prevent or control a hazard.
12
■ PREVENTION PRIORITIES
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
(Management Regulations) lay down general principles of
prevention which must be followed when deciding what to do
about a possible hazard:
a) Avoid the risk.
b) Evaluate the risks, which cannot be avoided.
c) Combat the risks at source.
d) Adapt the work to the individual – especially the design of
workplaces, and the choice of work equipment and working
and production methods – with a view, in particular, to
alleviating monotonous work and work at a predetermined
work rate and to reducing their effect on health.
e) Adapt to technical progress.
f) Replace the dangerous by the non-dangerous or the less
dangerous.
g) Develop a coherent, overall prevention policy which covers
technology, organisation of work, working conditions, social
relationships and the influence of factors relating to the
working environment.
h) Give collective protective measures priority over individual
protective measures.
i) Give appropriate instructions to employees.
Therefore, under the regulations, you cannot simply try to avoid a

hazard by providing protective clothing. The employer has a duty, in
law, to look first at removing the risk, or reducing it. While
protective clothing may be necessary, it is a back-up to other
measures and very much a last line of defence.
Some employers may try to adjust the assessments to show that

there isn’t a problem and they don’t need to do anything. You will
need to challenge these assumptions in writing, using safety
representatives’ rights. Ask for details of the criteria used if you
think that the results of the assessments are obviously flawed.
Challenge in writing any that you don’t agree with. Don’t wait for
the health and safety inspectors to call. There are too few of them,
and they don’t have enough resources.
HSE inspectors are there to help us, but should only be used after
discussion with the employers has failed. 13
■ WHAT THE LAW SAYS AND

HOW TO CARRY OUT
ASSESSMENTS
The Health and Safety at Work Act (HASAWA) 1974 places a general
legal duty on all employers to ensure the health, safety and welfare
at work of all their employees More recent regulations flesh out the
details, spelling out specific legal duties for employers to undertake
– including risk assessments for every job and process in the
workplace – and to act on.
The most wide-ranging requirements are included in the

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
(Management Regulations). Regulation 3 places a legal duty on
employers to carry out risk assessments as a first step in ensuring a
safe and healthy workplace.
The Health & Safety Executive, in its guide to risk assessment

requirements, says: ‘The risk assessment provisions of the
Management Regulations are rather special. They require employers
and self-employed people to assess the risks created by their
undertakings so as to identify the measures they need to have in
place to comply with their duties under health and safety law. As
such, the assessment provisions of the Management Regulations are
superimposed over all the other workplace health and safety
legislation, including the general duties in the Health and Safety at
Work Act.
‘This makes the Management Regulations risk assessment provisions

very wide-ranging and all-embracing. They are comprehensive in
coverage of places, activities and other sources of hazard. They
require you to assess all the risks in your workplace. That is, what
could cause harm to yourself, your employees (if any) and members
of the public, and the likelihood that harm will occur in practice.
You then need to decide on the precautions you must take to
prevent this happening.’
14
■ MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS:
WHAT YOUR EMPLOYER MUST
DO
The employer’s main risk assessment duties under these regulations
are to:
a) Make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the
health and safety of their employees and the risks to others
who may be affected.
b) Identify the preventive and protective measures needed.
c) Introduce the preventive and protective measures needed to
improve workplace health and safety.
d) Review the assessment if there is reason to believe that it is no
longer valid – for example, if the process has changed, the
building has been refurbished or an experienced worker
has left.
e) Keep a written record, where there are five or more
employees, of the findings of the assessment and any groups
of employees particularly at risk.
Have arrangements for the effective planning, organisation, control,

monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures.
Provide any health surveillance identified in the risk assessment.
a) Appoint competent people to assist the employer.
b) Establish procedures to be followed in the event of serious and
imminent danger.
c) Provide health and safety information, instruction and training
for all employees.
d) Consult with safety representatives.
Risk assessment in fact predates the Management Regulations – it

was a requirement of previous health and safety regulations,
including those dealing with asbestos work, noise, ionising radiation
and the control of substances hazardous to health.
■ Suitable and sufficient?

The Management Regulations require employers’ risk assessments to
be ‘suitable and sufficient’. Advice on what this means is set out in the
Approved Code of Practice to the Regulations drawn up by the
Health and Safety Commission, and employers should refer to 15
this to help them.
A suitable and sufficient risk assessment should enable the employer

to identify and prioritise the measures that need to be taken,
including the health and safety information and training that must
be given to employees; any health surveillance that is required; any
monitoring that needs to be carried out; and the procedures to
follow in the event of serious or imminent danger. It must be carried
out by a ‘competent person’.
To be ‘suitable and sufficient’ the assessment must identify all the

hazards and decide whether they have the potential to cause harm
in the workplace. Employers are expected to familiarise themselves
with the hazards and risks in their workplace – for example, by
reading HSE guidance, the trade press, manufacturers’ and suppliers’
manuals and so on, as well as consulting employees, trade union
safety representatives and outside experts where necessary. The
method used should be appropriate to the complexity of the work
activities and the risks involved.
Risk assessments must now pay attention to risks to women who

are pregnant, have recently given birth or are breast feeding. For
example, manual handling may cause particular problems for
pregnant workers.
In addition, employers are required to make special consideration of

the risks faced by young workers. In particular to:
a) Take particular account of young workers’ lack of experience,
absence of awareness of existing or potential risks, or their
immaturity when they assess the risks to their health and
safety. The assessment must now be made before the young
person begins work and must address specific factors.
b) Take account of the risk assessment in determining whether
the young person is prohibited from doing certain work.
Risk assessment is not just about identifying the hazards from the
actual work activity. Risk assessments should cover issues such as
staffing levels that can seriously affect how work is done in practice.
Sometimes management will avoid assessing every individual job

and workplace, and instead do a ‘generic’ risk assessment based on
a sample which they then apply to all similar situations. This is often
used on groups like home care workers, where the employer does
16 not want to inspect every single client’s house. The Health & Safety
Executive has said that these generic risk assessments are acceptable
if all the workplaces and jobs they are applied to are very similar.
However, the Amicus has always advised safety representatives to be

cautious about this approach as no two workplaces, or workers, are
really the same, so less obvious or one-off hazards can be missed.
17
■ A SUITABLE AND SUFFICIENT

RISK ASSESSMENT MUST
a) Identify all the hazards – that is, those aspects of work that
have the potential to cause harm:
• substances
• equipmen
• work processes
• work organisation
b) Identify any specific regulations that must be complied with
c) Assess all the risks – that is, the likelihood that the harm will
occur from the hazards identified.
d) Be systematic in approach.
e) Ensure that all aspects of the work activity are considered.
f) Address what actually happens in the workplace, not what the
staff handbook or works manual says should happen.
g) Include non-routine operations such as:
• maintenance operations loading and unloading changes
in production cycles
• address what happens during interruptions to the work
activity
• ensure that everyone who might be affected
• office staff night cleaners maintenance staff security
guards visitors
h) Identify groups of workers particularly at risk, such as:
• young workers
• inexperienced workers
• lone workers
• workers with disabilities
• pregnant workers
i) Take account of existing preventive or precautionary measures
and whether they are working properly.
18
■ GET IT IN WRITING
The significant findings of a risk assessment must be recorded if
there are five or more employees (although even where there are
fewer than five a written record is useful evidence that the
assessment has been carried out). The findings must be made
available for inspectors and trade union safety representatives to
inspect and satisfy themselves that the risk assessment carried out is
both suitable and sufficient.
The ‘significant findings’ include:

• The significant hazards identified.
• The existing control measures in place and the extent to which
they control the risks.
• Details of any aspects that need improving and of the people
who could be affected, including any groups of workers
particularly at risk.
The written risk assessment is a very important document. If it is

done properly, it establishes that the employer recognises that the
risk is present and should also explain the procedures the employer
intends to use to control the risk.
Safety representatives can use the written assessments to check that

all the risks are being covered. They can use the section on control
measures as a basis for their planned routine inspections.
19
■ COMPETENT PERSONS
Under the Management Regulations, employers must appoint
‘competent persons’ to assist them. These may be employees or
outside consultants. However, if the employer already employs
someone who is competent they have to use that person rather
than contract the work out to an outside body or consultant.
There must be sufficient competent people to carry out the work

and they must be given adequate time and adequate resources to
carry out their functions, as well as having adequate decision-
making authority. The Health and Safety Commission says
management should take into account several factors when
identifying competent people:
Competent people should have a knowledge and understanding of:

a) The work being assessed.
b) The principles of risk assessment and prevention of risk.
c) Up-to-date health and safety measures.
d) Identification of hazards at work.
Competent people should be able to:

a) Identify health and safety issues.
b) Assess the need for action.
c) Design, develop and implement strategies and plans.
d) Check the effectiveness of these strategies and plans.
e) Know their limitations and when to call for others with specific
skills and expertise.
However, it is important to remember that risk assessments are the

responsibility of the employer, whoever performs the role of
competent person. The Amicus safety representative may well know
more about health and safety than anyone else in the building, but
this does not mean that management can relinquish this
responsibility. If they haven’t got the skills in house, management
must ensure that they get properly trained and experienced staff.
Employing consultants may seem to be the sensible option, but

outside consultants rarely have the knowledge of the work to do a
thorough risk assessment, and are unable to follow through the
findings of the assessment.
20
Amicus records show that some managements are trying to get the
best of both worlds – delegating risk assessment responsibilities to
lower grade workers, then failing to act to remove risks themselves.
Several Amicus representatives report that their employers are

either untrained, unwilling or unable to carry out risk assessments.
Getting the employer to provide proper information and training on

risk assessment is often an important first stage in getting proper
assessments done. An assessment can he neither ‘suitable’ nor
‘sufficient’ if the people doing it do not know what they are doing.
21
■ YOUR RIGHT TO EXAMINE

ASSESSMENTS
The Approved Code of Practice to the Management Regulations
makes it clear that safety representatives should have an important
role in examining employers’ risk assessments and deciding whether
they are suitable and sufficient.
Safety representatives will obviously need help from the Amicus to

do this and this guide is intended to provide much of the
background information required. Amicus representatives should
first of all refer to what the Approved Code of Practice says is
suitable and sufficient. It is important that you are satisfied that the
risk assessment covers all the hazards, all the relevant factors and all
the people who may be affected.
22
■ OTHER LAWS THAT REQUIRE

RISK ASSESSMENT
It’s not just the Management Regulations that require risk
assessments. The main health and safety laws with their own risk
assessment requirements are:
• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations
• Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations
• Control of Lead at Work Regulations
• Noise at Work Regulations
• Manual Handling Operations Regulations
• Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations
• Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations
• Fire Precautions (Workplaces) Regulations
These regulations will be relevant in safety discussions in most if not

all workplaces where Amicus has members and the Amicus has
produced guidance for safety representatives on most of these (see
Amicus Health and Safety Essentials for further information).
Other regulations, including the Pressurised Systems Regulations and

the Ionising Radiation Regulations, also have specific risk assessment
requirements, though they affect smaller groups of workers.
The HSE, in its guide to risk assessment requirements, says: ‘This

guide should help to check that your assessment of the risks
addresses all that might cause harm in your workplace. It will help
you avoid going over again things that you have already done in
examining that the precautions you have in place are reasonable
and meet all that the law requires of you. It looks at the common
features of these provisions, compares them, including their
wording, and examines the significance of the differences between
them’.
However, Amicus believes that it is important to look at the

regulations dealing with specific hazards in detail when carrying out
assessments. For example, the Manual Handling Operations
Regulations list the factors you must consider if you or your workers
have to lift loads that could cause injury.
23
■ HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES
The law also requires employers to do a specific risk assessment
when any dangerous substance is being used. The Control of
Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) took effect in
1989. Like the Management Regulations, which were introduced
four years later, they place duties on employers to assess the risks to
health of exposure to hazardous substances in the workplace and
bring in preventive measures.
Many employers have spent a huge amount of time and effort

amassing detailed data sheets on all the chemicals used in their
workplace. Once they have collected this information and filed it
they think this is all they have to do.
But COSHH is not about assembling bulging files of chemical

information. It’s about operating a methodical system which can
identify existing and new workplace health and safety risks – and
then tackle them.
There is no need to get sucked into intricate discussions about parts

per million (the measurement of how much of a chemical is getting
into the air) or the hazards of various chemicals. Amicus
representatives know that if a member is suffering headaches or has
had a skin rash from exposure to a cleaning or cutting fluid then
something is wrong, regardless of the results of ‘scientific’
measurements. A simple survey of members, asking them about
symptoms, can back up your arguments that exposure to a
substance is hazardous.
Solutions need to be effective, with the real risks promptly tackled

at source. Safety representatives need to keep up the pressure on
employers to prioritise properly and take action on the real
problems.
Employers’ first duties under COSHH are to avoid the risk by

questioning whether a chemical has to be used at all, and then
whether a safer chemical could be used instead.
In its guide, Seven Steps to Successful Substitution of Hazardous

Substances the Health & Safety Executive says: ‘If you are an
24 employee you have a legal duty to run your business in a way that
creates the least possible risk to yourself, your workers and the
public. For example, under the Control of Substances Hazardous to

Health Regulations (COSHH), you must:
a) Assess how people’s health is at risk from substances you
use at work.
b) Take action to prevent or control these risks.
COSHH aims to prevent people being exposed to hazardous

substances, rather than trying to limit or control their exposure.
Substituting one process, substance or system of work for another
can be an important way of making sure that people are not
exposed to hazardous substances.
25
■ HSE’S SEVEN STEPS TO

SUBSTITUTION
a) Decide whether the substance or process is a hazard. Is there a
significant risk involved in storing, using or disposing of a
substance?
b) Identify the alternatives.
c) Think about what could happen with the alternatives.
d) Compare the alternatives with each other and with the
substance or process you are using at the moment.
e) Decide whether to substitute.
f) Introduce the substitute.
g) Assess how it is working.
Remember that substitutes for hazardous chemicals can themselves

have dangers, so make sure that management gets all the
information on the substitute before it is introduced, and that staff
are monitored for any effects.
26
■ NEW HAZARDS
As the type of work we do has changed over recent years, so have
the kind of hazards we face. While the injuries and illnesses
identified with manufacturing are important, the biggest causes of
ill-health through work today are stress and musculoskeletal
illnesses such as back pain and repetitive strain injury (RSI).
There are a wide range of hazards that we are only now beginning
to recognise. These include:
a) Infections – including hantavirus infection, chronic fatigue
syndrome, AIDS, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, hepatitis C.
b) Stress – including burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder.
c) Strains – musculoskeletal problems, including over use injuries
and ‘microtrauma’ injuries.
d) Physical – electric and magnetic fields and possibly related
cancers, reproductive problems and skin rashes.
e) Chemical – conditions including multiple chemical sensitivity
and male infertility.
f) Hypersensitivity – sick building syndrome, new asthma
disorders and other breathing problems.
The lesson is clear enough. Trust the evidence of your senses – sight,
smell, hearing, touch – your surveys and your members because they
are a far more sensitive gauge of work hazards – particularly ‘new’
hazards – than the occupational health and safety industry.
Risk assessments should cover all hazards in the workplace. They

should not be restricted to obvious physical or chemical safety
hazards such as electricity, fire, machinery or well-known dangerous
chemicals. The less obvious or ‘hidden’ hazards also need to be
addressed, including those listed above.
Risk assessments must cover all work activities, processes and

systems, as well as equipment and substances. That means including
issues like working hours and workload.
If management denies there is a problem, one way to get your own

evidence is for the union to carry out a quick survey of the
membership. This can be done for any hazard – from stress to
violence to chemicals.
27
■ WHAT ARE THE HAZARDS IN

YOUR WORKPLACE
■ Physical hazards
Fire
Electricity
Noise
Vibration
Slips, trips and falls
Manual handling
Non-ionising radiation
Machinery
Transport
Awkward/fixed postures
Display screen equipment
Chemicals – liquids, dusts, mists, fumes, gases
Drugs
Asbestos
Solvents
Diesel
Paints
Lead
■ Psychosocial hazards
Stress
Bullying
Violence
Work overload
Lack of control
Long hours
Shift work
No/poor consultation
No/poor support
No/poor participation
Monotonous or paced work
Boredom
Isolation
28
■ Biological hazards
Hepatitis
Lab cultures
Legionnaire’s disease
HIV
Tuberculosis
Weil’s disease
Psittacosis
Animal allergens
Plant allergens
29
■ DOES THE ASSESSMENT

COVER ALL RELEVANT
FACTORS?
Risk assessments must take into account all the relevant factors. For
example, they must include ergonomic considerations such as the
design of tools, equipment, workstations and workplaces, as well as
the way jobs are carried out, to check that the job is suitable to the
worker both physically and psychologically.
■ Making the job fit

Management often tries to reduce the risk of an accident or injury
by screening out workers from jobs rather than altering the job to
fit the worker. This type of selection is not what the law intended
and is usually of dubious validity. It can also discriminate against
workers with a disability, or who are different from others.
Whenever equipment is being introduced at your workplace, you
should not only make sure that a risk assessment is done on it
before it arrives, but that your employer asks questions about all the
circumstances in which the equipment or system will be used. For
instance, is it easy to use? Does it suit everyone regardless of size,
shape or disabilities? Is it comfortable? Has it been designed with
the user in mind?
These questions can help to identify possible mismatches between

the abilities and physical attributes of people and the demands of
the equipment with which they work.
■ Is the workplace and work organisation included?

Employers should consider the whole working environment –
whether it is adequately lit, ventilated and heated, as well as
whether there is enough space to do the job in safety and comfort.
They should look at organisational factors such as staffing levels,
hours of work, and the way work is planned, and include
examination of training provisions and supervision.
The overall culture of the organisation should be assessed.

Inadequate resources, long hours, monotonous work, badly planned
work, discrimination, bullying and poor management can all lead to
30 fatigue, stress and an increase in accidents, incidents and ill-health.
■ Does the assessment cover everyone at risk?

Risk assessments must cover everyone likely to be affected. This
means not only the core workforce but also contractors, security
staff, agency staff, night cleaners, visitors, clients or patients.
Risk assessments must also identify groups who may be particularly
at risk, such as young workers, pregnant or breast feeding workers,
inexperienced workers and trainees, maintenance workers, shift
workers and those working outside normal hours.
People with disabilities may be at special risk, so assessments should

take account of their particular needs. Unfortunately many
employers treat a person with a disability as the hazard instead of
identifying what needs to be done to protect them. Safety
representatives should be alert to this.
Account should also be taken of the risks to lone workers and

people working away from the employer’s premises who may be at
increased risk of violence or stress. Pregnant women may be at
particular risk.
31
■ YOUR EMPLOYER’S ACTION

PLAN
The risk assessment should identify what action the employer needs
to take, firstly to prevent or eliminate the risks, and secondly to
control or minimise those risks which cannot be eliminated. It
should:
a) Enable the employer to prioritise the action that needs to be
taken so that the most serious risks are tackled first.
b) Set out a timetable for the implementation of remedial action.
Safety representatives should check their employer’s action plan and

ensure that the proposals arising from the risk assessments represent
a clear strategy to improve health and safety in the workplace.
Representatives should also check that it is clear who has

responsibility for implementing the action and that resources have
been made available to achieve the improvements required. There
should be a proper system for keeping the assessments under
review, plus procedures for reporting shortcomings that mean
further preventive action is needed.
If you think your employer’s risk assessments or action plans are

inadequate – or if your employer is failing to implement the
preventive or protective measures that have been identified – you
can challenge such shortcomings and take up health, safety and
welfare issues in the normal way. Employers may try to delay or
avoid action because of cost or resource arguments.
They may try to argue that certain workplaces are low-risk or that
the hazards are not significant, so they don’t need to look at them.
These are not valid reasons for failing to act and you should
challenge them and keep up the pressure on your employer in the
normal way so that priorities for action can be agreed. The law says
that your employer must provide a safe system of work as far as is
reasonably practical. That means that all hazards that are identified
must be removed or reduced wherever possible.
32
■ RECORD KEEPING
Your employer must keep a record of accidents, injuries and near
misses, however small. In addition, all serious accidents – or those
which result in an absence of more that three days off work – must
be reported to the enforcing authority. Your employer should keep
records of all periods of sickness. Where a worker is at risk of
exposure to a harmful substance they must offer health surveillance.
As a safety representative, you are entitled to see this information

(although details that might identify the individuals concerned can
be removed). The employer’s records can be used to see whether
there are any hazards or risks that have not been considered in
the risk assessment.
33
■ REVIEW
Once the risk assessment is complete it must be kept under review
and a further risk assessment carried out if there are changes to
working patterns or the equipment used. It must also be reviewed if
there has been an accident, incident or near miss. It is good practice
to review all risk assessments on a regular basis, even if no changes
have happened. This should usually be done every year.
34
■ ASSESSING RISK
ASSESSMENTS
Amicus has drawn up the following checklist for safety
representatives to help them assess and monitor their employer’s
risk assessments and action plan.
1. Is your employer carrying out risk assessments?

• Have assessments been carried out?
• If not, are arrangements in hand for them to be done?
2. Are resources available to carry out risk assessments properly?

• Do risk assessors have the necessary time, resources, training
and authority to do proper risk assessments?
3. Who carries out risk assessments?

• Are they competent (do they have knowledge and
understanding of the work involved, of the principles of risk
assessment, prevention and control, and of current health and
safety applications)?
• What qualifications/experience do they have?
• What information, instruction and training have they been
provided with?
• Are outside consultants being used?
• Are specialists, such as ergonomists, brought in where
necessary?
• Have safety representatives been consulted over the
appointment of the competent persons?
• How will safety representatives and employees be involved?
4. Do assessments cover all the hazards and risks at work?

• Do assessments cover all areas, activities, processes,
substances, equipment and departments?
• Do assessments cover systems of work, training, supervision
and working environment?
• Do they cover work organisation and content?
• Do they cover hazards which you or Amicus members have
identified?
• Do assessments look at what actually happens in practice and
include non-routine operations such as maintenance?
35
5. Do assessments cover all those who could be affected?

• Are those working outside normal hours, visitors and sub-
contractors covered?
• Have those particularly at risk (such as lone workers) been
identified?
• Are specific risk assessments done for pregnant workers?
• Do individual assessments need to be carried out for some
workers (for example, those working outside the main place of
work)?
6. Are existing preventive measures being used properly?

• Are the control measures followed? Do the control measures
work
• Are they monitored? is information, instruction and training
provision adequate?
• Have measures been identified to prevent or control the risks
to health and safety?
• Can hazards be eliminated (for example, by not using a
hazardous substance if not essential)?
• If not, can hazards be controlled at source (for example, by
treating slippery steps rather than using a warning sign)?
• If not, can hazards be isolated (for example by isolating a
dusty area)?
• If not, is suitable personal protective equipment provided as
a last resort?
• Is health surveillance necessary?
• Have procedures for serious and imminent danger been
drawn up?
• Have safety representatives been consulted about the
employer’s plan to control risks?
• Have safety representatives been given copies or access to the
written risk assessments?
• Do they explain the hazards?
• Do they explain the control measures?
• Do they explain who is at risk?
• Do they contain sufficient detail to allow safety
representatives to judge whether they are adequate?
• Are control measures being implemented?
• Has a plan of action been drawn up for implementing the
control measures identified in the risk assessment?
• Does the plan identify priorities?
36 • Does the plan set out an agreed timetable for action?
• Does the plan identify who is responsible for taking the action?
• Has money been made available to implement the measures?

• Are risk assessments kept up-to-date?
• Do planned reviews of risk assessments take place at regular
intervals?
• Are risk assessments redone before changes, such as new
equipment or new ways of working, are introduced into the
workplace?
• Are risk assessments reviewed if evidence suggests hat control
measures are not adequate, for example following accidents,
near misses, reports of ill-health, or findings from safety
representatives’ inspections?
• Are risk assessments reviewed if there are other reasons to
suspect they are invalid, for example in the light of new
legislation or new medical evidence?
37
■ UNION INVOLVEMENT
It is the employer’s responsibility to carry out risk assessments.
However trade union safety representatives can play an important
part in ensuring that they are done properly.
Safety representatives have extensive rights under the Safety

Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations (SRSC). These
rights are set out in full under Regulations 4, 5, 6, and 7 of SRSC and
include the following:
a) The right to be consulted.
b) To investigate health and safety matters.
c) To inspect the workplace.
d) To receive information, including any risk assessments.
e) To take paid time off to perform their functions and
undergo training.
It is important that Amicus safety representatives use these rights to

check their employers’ risk assessments and plans for risk prevention
and control. All the evidence shows that the safest workplaces are
those where there are well organised and active safety
representatives using their rights fully. The Health & Safety
Executive has always maintained that safety representatives should
be involved in risk assessments.
38
■ CONSULTATION WHERE
AMICUS IS NOT RECOGNISED
Until October 1996, the term ‘safety representative’ meant trade
union safety representative. The law said safety representatives only
had the right to exist in workplaces with a recognised trade union.
But a new law has changed that. Now members in workplaces
where unions are not recognised – as well as workers in workplaces
without any union – must be consulted about health and safety
matters too. These regulations can help Amicus members become
active on health and safety issues in workplaces where we do not
yet have recognition.
39
■ HEALTH AND SAFETY

INSPECTORS
■ what they do and where to find them
If you’ve exhausted every stage of the official procedure and
members are still being asked to work in hazardous situations, what
do you do? One option is to talk to the official health and safety
inspector. Health and safety inspectors who work for the Health &
Safety Executive or local authority enforce health and safety laws
and regulations and can prosecute employers for breaches of
the law.
■ An inspector can:
a) Issue an improvement notice so that an employer is required to
take action to put things right in a specified time.
b) Issue a prohibition notice stopping specific activities because of
the ‘serious risk of personal injury’.
c) Prosecute the employer in court. Penalties for breaking health
and safety laws include fines and imprisonment of the
employer.
Taking employers to court tends to be used as a last resort by the

HSE. In general, the HSE inspectors seek to bring about
improvements in the first instance by writing reports following their
visits or inspections. HSE inspectors should contact and speak to
safety representatives separately from management when they
make their inspections. Safety representatives must be given a copy
of the inspector’s report. This is a legal entitlement under Section 2
8(8) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The HSE Inspectorate is very under-resourced so workplace visits may

be few and far between, unless there is a serious accident. So the
HSE cannot be relied on to enforce the law for unions.
You should normally only contact the HSE after management has
failed to respond in a reasonable time to issues you have raised
through recognised channels and procedures in your workplace, and
in consultation with your Amicus Regional Official.
If you do call HSE inspectors in, you will have to convince them that
40 your problem is a priority or a high risk. It can help if you can list a
whole number of hazards, their severity, the number of workers
affected and the regulations that the employer is breaking. The HSE
will also want you to demonstrate that you have tried all avenues to
sort the hazards out with your employer before reporting them.
HSE inspectors have enforced risk assessment duties and prosecuted

employers over risk assessment failures in the past. Let employers
know that they can be prosecuted for neglecting this duty.
Details of who your enforcing authority is, and how to contact

them, should be displayed on a noticeboard in your workplace. If it
is not, you can find out by calling your local HSE office. This is listed
in the phone book under Health & Safety Executive.
41
■ RISK ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST

a) Has a ‘suitable and sufficient’ assessment been done?
b) Were Amicus representatives consulted?
c) Do representatives have copies of all the assessments?
d) Do assessments cover all the staff at risk from a substance or
process?
e) Could a safer substance or process be used?
f) Are training and information specified in the assessment
adequate?
g) Is the risk assessment being complied with?
h) Do you need to review and update your present risk
assessment?
42
43
44
Risk Assessment guide 14/1/05 10:00 am Page a
Amicus
Hayes Court
West Common Road
Hayes, Bromley BR2 7AU
Tel 020 8462 7755
Fax 020 8315 8234
www.amicustheunion.org

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Risk Assessment guide 14/1/05 10:00 am Page b

Standards of safety in the Amicus 5

What is risk assessment? 6

The Health and Safety Executive’s approach 7

Methods of risk assessment 8

Amicus steps to risk assessment 11

From risk assessment to risk prevention 12

What the law says and how to carry out assessments 14

Management regulations: what your employer must do 15

A suitable and sufficient risk assessment 18

Your right to examine assessments 22

Other laws that require risk assessment 23

HSE’s seven steps to substitution 26

What are the hazards in your workplace? 28

Does the assessment cover all the releveant factors? 30

Assessing risk assessments 35

Consultation where the Amicus is not recognised 39

Health and safety inspectors: what they do

Risk assessment checklist 42

Amicus Guide to Risk Assessment

35 King Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8JG

Hayes Court 33-37 Moreland St

This Rule Book is downloadable in PDF format from www.amicustheunion.org

It will also help Amicus safety representatives to keep a close eye on

Risk assessment means identifying the hazards in the workplace and

No workplace risks are inevitable. A properly managed workplace

The Amicus believes that badly done risk assessments mean

2. No assessment, no work. Employers should not ask anyone to

3. Inspect. Inspections by safety representatives, surveys, ‘risk

4. Get support. Amicus regional officers, backed by Amicus National

5. Training. Amicus safety representative training and other courses

■ WHAT IS RISK ASSESSMENT?

Amicus representatives have used risk assessments to achieve better

■ THE HSE’S APPROACH

This pamphlet provides simple advice on risk assessment, aimed at

■ The five steps can be summarised as follows:

A methodical, step-by-step approach is essential and Five Steps to

Employers could look at:

Tasks For example, cleaning, maintenance work, installation of plant

Locations For example, laboratories, offices, libraries or work

Organisational factors For example, staffing policies, systems of

In identifying hazards the employer needs to look at accident

Another system is using a chart called a matrix. Along one side of

A 5-level matrix might look like this:

The scoring might go like this:

CATEGORY HARM LIKELIHOOD

More sophisticated systems build in other factors such as the cost of

The purpose of all these systems is to help employers prioritise the

It is very important that health and safety representatives are aware

For example, suppose a ‘nuisance’ dust is assessed as causing no

But any dust in the workplace is an irritant – physical and mental –

■ AMICUS STEPS TO RISK

a) Set up a programme of risk assessments.

■ FROM RISK ASSESSMENT TO

The purpose of the risk assessment is to make sure that something

Safety representatives are entitled to their own opinions about the

Therefore, under the regulations, you cannot simply try to avoid a

Some employers may try to adjust the assessments to show that