Hertford Regional College

RISK ASSESSMENT PROCEDURE

1. Purpose
The purpose of this Health and Safety Procedure is to outline the steps which need to
be taken when completing a General Risk Assessment which is a legal requirement to
comply with Health and Safety Legislation.

2. Scope
This procedure applies to Hertford Regional College (HRC) – Ware and Broxbourne
campus and any work carried out at our next step centres.
Revision Details:
This is the first issue of this procedure dated November 2014
3. Introduction
The key requirements of risk assessments are:

 Identification of hazards
 Assessment of the risks to health, safety and the environment
 Identification of measures to control risks
 Recording of significant results of the assessment
 Management of identified risks
 Review of assessments as required

4. Responsibility for the completion of risk assessments

Academic and Business Support Managers at all levels are responsible for ensuring
risk assessments are completed for their areas. Managers should involve others (e.g.
Safety reps, support staff and lecturers) in the fact finding of risks and controls for the
completion of assessment in their areas.

Managers are also responsible for ensuring that staff they manage are aware of the
findings of the risk assessment and measures are in place to control the risks. They
are also responsible for ensuring that any actions identified in the assessment have
clear own ownership and are followed through to completion.

5. General Risk Assessment Procedure

The General Risk Assessment Form is used to record hazards identified and the risks
assessed (see appendix1). This form can be downloaded and is available on staffnet.
The area or activity to be assessed must be defined. For some areas, a single
assessment may be used to cover all of a departments operation. For other areas, with
complex operations or numerous hazards, it may be more practical to assess
individual parts of the operation separately. It may also be appropriate to identify areas
which are not covered by the assessment to aid clarity. A plan of the area assessed
can be included if useful.

The hazards for the area or activity must be identified. Each hazard identified for an
area or activity must be recorded to the General Risk Assessment in column 1.

A hazard is defined as something with the potential to cause harm or damage.

Where certain hazards are identified, additional secondary assessments may be

required by UK legislation (e.g. hazardous substances may require COSHH
assessments).

The people at risk of harm from the hazard must be identified, along with the way that
they may be harmed. This is recorded in column 2 on the General Risk Assessment.
Try to identify what the harm will be e.g. cut finger, upper limb disorder.

All existing control measures, e.g. guarding, training, procedures, and personal
protective equipment, in place for each hazard must be detailed in column 3. Where
other assessments have been performed as required (e.g. COSHH or Manual
Handling assessments), control measures need not be listed in full in the General Risk
Assessment but reference to the specific assessment must be made.

A control measure is something which reduces risk associated with a hazard.

The potential consequence for each hazard must be evaluated using the scoring
system (see appendix 2). This is recorded in column 4. Consideration should be given
to health and safety risks, environmental impacts and business risks.

The likelihood of occurrence for each consequence, with current control measures in
place, is evaluated, using the scoring system this is recorded in column 5.

Calculate the current risk value by multiplying the consequence and likelihood scores.
This is recorded in column 6.

The risk value is a numerical value used to quantify risk or impact.

For each hazard, if possible identify a potential remedial action to further reduce risk,
considering continuous improvement and the hierarchy of control as required by UK
legislation, local procedures and guidelines. These are recorded in column 7.

In general, a mixture of control measures will be used, but controls should be

considered in the following order:

 Elimination or Substitution
 Engineering Controls
 Administrative Controls
  Personal Protective Equipment

To help prioritise actions identified, risks should be reassessed and scored with any
proposed remedial actions in place and the potential scores entered in columns 8, 9
and 10. Managers should prioritise actions to reduce the highest risks and actions
giving the best benefits.

The completed assessment must be printed and signed and the master hard copy kept
securely or scanned and saved to a secure area. Copies of the assessment must be
made available for staff. An electronic copy must be forwarded to the Safety manager.

Action Plans

Actions from the assessment to reduce risks should be placed into an action plan and
tracked to completion.

Actions should be specific, measurable, agreed, realistic and time-based (SMART) and
include target completion dates and names of those responsible for the action.

When actions are completed, hazards must be reassessed and re-scored on the action
plan.

6. Review
General Risk Assessments should be reviewed yearly as a minimum. Other situations
where review is required are:

 Completion of actions (re-score the risk index value on the action plan)
 Changes to processes (e.g. new equipment / changes to the ways of working)
 Changes in personnel
 Review of accidents or incidents (internal and external)
 Changes in regulatory requirements

Amendments to assessments following reviews may either be recorded on hard copies

of the General Risk Assessment or as an additional section as appropriate. For
significant changes to the area or activity, the complete assessment should be
reviewed.

Copies of superseded General Risk Assessments must be forwarded to the safety

Manager for archiving.

7. Escalation of Risks to the Site Risk Management Process

All Safety risks must be assessed and managed using the General Risk Assessment
Procedure. It may be necessary to escalate the risks inclusion in the Site Risk
Management Process:
 The risk must be escalated if:

 The potential consequence may result in a significant health and safety,

environmental or business impact and it cannot be sufficiently controlled by local
measures.
 The risk control measure cannot be completed because it requires further
authorisation and / or allocation of resource
 The risk impacts more than one area across campus and the control of the risk is
not within the remit of the local area which identified the risk (ie; security).
 The health and Safety manager must be involved in the decision to escalate a risk
from the General Risk Assessment to the local risk forum or the site risk
management process.

8. Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of the Head of Department (or equivalent) to ensure risk
assessments are completed for their areas and activities and to brief the results of
assessments to staff.

It is the responsibility of the Head of Department (or equivalent) to ensure that a safety
action plan is maintained and monitored on a regular basis.

It is the responsibility of the health and safety manager and staff development
manager to provide training and support to Managers completing General Risk
Assessments.

9. Training Requirements

All staff who complete risk assessments must carry out the online ROSPA approved
risk assessment training which can be booked through staff development.

Once the online training is complete a risk assessment must be carried out and
approved by the Health and Safety manager.

A copy of the assessment must be sent to staff development, approval will then be
given for you to continue to carry out risk assessments.

Refresher training must be carried out every 2 years.

Appendix 1
Risk Assessment Template

General Risk
Assessment

Area or
Location:
Assessment Reference:
(attach plan if
possible)

Activity or
Assessment Date:
Operation:

Activities not
Review Date:
assessed:

Manager: Departmental Manager Signature: Date

Assessor: Assessors Signature: Date
 After Proposed
Actions
Hazard

Consequence

Consequence
Likelihood

Likelihood
Risk (CxL)

Risk (CxL)
(1-5)

(1-5)

(1-5)

(1-5)
Risk (Use the Who might be harmed Existing Control Proposed actions /
Numbe Hazard and how? Measures remedial measures
r Checklist to
prompt)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
 Taking into account the control measures that are currently in place, consider the Severity of an accident/incident occurring, and the likely
Likelihood of injury:

Tick the appropriate box in the table below

Potential Consequence (Severity) 1 – 9 Likelihood

9. Fatalities (Single or Multiple) 9. Inevitable - certain or almost certain

8. Very significant injuries possible total 8. Very likely to occur

incapacity

7. Severe incapacity 7. Reasonably likely to occur - not a surprise

6. Slight incapacity Probable 6. Above normal chance of it happening

5. Absent from work for more than 7 5. Even chance of it happening

days and less than 4 weeks.
4. Absent from work for more than three 4. Possible
days but less than 7 days. Less than even chance of it happening.
3. Minor injury - needs skilled first aid 3. Unlikely, but it has happened before
treatment and visit to hospital/GP.
Injured person unable to return to
work immediately, but absence less
than 3 days
2. Injury attended by First Aider. No lost 2. Minor Improbable - Fairly unlikely to happen
time
1. Minor injury involving minimal 1. Highly unlikely – a very improbable incident
pain/loss of blood requiring only basic
first aid. No lost time.

Multiply the two figures and highlight the appropriate box in the chart below.
RISK MATRIX

LIKELIHOOD 9 9 18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81
8 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 72

7 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63

6 6 12 18 24 30 36 47 48 54

5 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

4 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36
3 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27
2 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

SEVERITY

LOW RISK MEDIUM RISK HIGH RISK

Version Control

Date of document establishment and June 2010

initial approval

Version number 2

Approving body Senior Leadership Team

Designated owner Ricky Irons, Health and Safety

Manager

Linked policies and procedures Health and Safety Policy

Date of last review November 2014

Date approved by approving body December 2014

Date of next review September 2016