Risk assessment is one of the most important things an employer can do. Take our five-question test to see if you are compliant.
A waste recycling company was ordered to pay over £1 million after an employee received a fatal injury.
In 2016, a 22-year-old tripped and fell under the wheels of a refuse lorry and sustained fatal injuries.
Investigators found that a proper risk assessment had not been carried out and there was a failure in the level of supervision.
Enterprise Managed Services admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The company was fined £1.2m and ordered to pay costs of over £60,000.
This tragic incident led to the death of a young man
HSE Inspector, Michelle Morrison, said: “This tragic incident led to the death of a young man, which could so easily have been avoided by simply carrying out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and identifying where reversing could be avoided.”
Those in control of workplaces are responsible for identifying and implementing suitable methods of work to reduce or minimise risk. The process of risk assessment is so incredibly important.
Take our five-question test
Take our five-question test to see if you have ‘suitable and sufficient’ risk assessments in place.
1. Have you identified a list of work activities that might need a risk assessment?
2. Do you have a risk assessment register, which identifies the assessments you need to keep up-to-date?
3. Have you carried out a risk assessment for each activity mentioned above and does the risk assessment include a description of hazards and the controls that are needed to reduce the risk?
4. Have you communicated the findings of the risk assessments to your employees and to your contractors?
5. Do you keep the risk assessments up-to-date and amend them if there are changes to work activities or changes to legislation?
If you answered “yes” to all five question, you are in good shape. However, if you were not able to answer “yes” to any of the questions, your business could be at risk.
If you need advice about risk assessment, or any other aspect of health, safety, environment or wellbeing, please get in contact.
Get your FREE health and safety questionnaire
Have you ever wondered what shape your business is in regarding health, safety, environment and wellbeing?
We have developed a simple questionnaire that businesses can use to check how compliant they are. The 20 questions are simple to answer and will give business owners an idea of where they stand in relation to health and safety.
Send for your FREE questionnaire.
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