Health and Safety - Risk Assessments

Policy

The Board of Directors and the Chief Executive of the Society recognise their responsibility for assessing hazards contained within or created by the Society’s business activities, and for reducing the risk to an acceptable level. In order to meet these obligations and to achieve and maintain a lower-risk working environment, the business has adopted the following.

 

Definitions

Competent Persons

For the purposes of carrying out a written risk assessment, a competent person is one who:

• Has obtained a Society recognised one day health & safety certificate or similar as a minimum, or:

• Has such knowledge as is required to identify the hazards contained within, or created by, the Society business operations

• Is able to make an assessment of the associated risks.

 

Hazards

Hazards are constants and cannot be reduced, except by elimination or substitution, for example, removing a hazardous piece of machinery or replacing it with one less hazardous.

 

Control Measures

Control measures are those measures in place to reduce risk and may be represented by mechanical measures, e.g. machinery guarding, standard operating procedures or Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

 

Risk

Risk is variable and may increase or decrease. The risk factor used in the Society’s risk system is residual risk.

 

Residual Risk

Residual risk represents the risk present after taking into consideration any control measures.

 

Assessment

The assessment represents the potential severity of a hazard combined with the probability (risk) of the hazard achieving its potential to do harm, after taking into consideration any control measures.

 

Site Manager’s Responsibility to carry out a Risk Assessment

The site manager is responsible for carrying out a risk assessment for the site and any other area that encompasses the responsibility within their role. They will carry out an initial risk assessment upon taking responsibility of the site. They must ensure that the risk assessment is reviewed in accordance with the details in this section.

A generic risk assessment will be carried out by the Health & Safety Team to cover the general hazards of the workplace and procedures. However, each site manager will be responsible for the ‘localising’ of the risk assessment to allow for site specific hazards that are not included in the generic assessment. This will include, but not be restricted to, the following:

• Delivery and warehouse procedures.

• Manual handling on site.

• COSHH.

• Display Screen Equipment (DSE).

• Personal Safety.

• Pedestrian and traffic segregation on site.

• Arson risks (storage of cardboard, position of bins etc.).

• Site machinery.

• Young Persons – See the Policy – Young People at Work

 

Scope & Extent of an Assessment

A suitable and sufficient risk assessment is one that:

• Correctly and accurately identifies a hazard.

• Disregards inconsequential risks and trivial risks associated with life in general.

• Determines the likelihood of harm or injury arising.

• Quantifies the severity of the consequences and number of people affected.

• Takes into account any control measures.

• Identifies any specific legal duty or requirement relating to the hazard.

• Will remain valid for a reasonable amount of period of time.

• Provides sufficient information to decide on control measures.

• Enables prioritisation of remedial measures.

All of the above should be taken into account before proceeding with the risk assessment.

 

Procedure

The Society will provide such resources as are required to ensure that all hazards are identified and risks assessed. The site manager will be trained in risk assessment to ensure their level of competence fulfils the requirement to carry out such tasks. Where a building or premise is classed as a ‘corporate’ site, the Property Group will be responsible for the risk assessment.

The site manager will be responsible for carrying out the risk assessment and ensuring that it is relevant to the day-to-day operations of the site. On completion of the risk assessment, the site manager will report any required actions beyond their control to their line manager. If their line manager is unable to action the findings, it must be reported to the Health & Safety Team, who may upon assessing the risk assessment carry out a separate risk assessment.

If within an agreed period the risks cannot be reduced to an acceptable level, the Health & Safety Team will inform the Health & Safety Manager. If the risks still cannot be reduced to an acceptable level he will inform the Executive of the findings.

 

Records of Assessment

The localised assessment must be recorded on one of the Society’s risk assessment forms and should support the generic assessment. Once completed, a copy of the site risk assessment must be kept in the appendices section of this document.

An original copy of the risk assessment must be kept at the site and must be retrievable upon request. Other risk assessments for site-specific operations and machinery must also be kept on site.

 

Information & Consultation

Managers who carry out a risk assessment must inform other colleagues within that site of the findings, together with the control measures in place, as soon as is reasonably practicable following the completion of assessments.

Where significant changes are to be made to further reduce risk, colleagues will be consulted in good time and careful consideration will be given to their views.

 

Review Period

Risk assessments must be kept under constant review, in order to ensure that they represent the current business activities. A new assessment must be carried out annually or automatically if there is:

• Any change of Site Management

• A change in control measures.

• Any significant change in the way the work is carried out.

• Transfer to new technology (colleague training will be a control measure.)

• Any reason to suspect that the original assessment is no longer valid or could be improved.

 

Version Number

1

Date Created

11/2020

Replaces

04/2017