Topic 4 - Risk Assessment

1. Topic 4 - Risk Assessment Textbook pages 72–77

2. Learning outcomes By the end of the topic learners will have: • Greater familiarity with risk assessment terminology • Understanding of the principles of risk assessment • Some ability to apply risk assessment techniques.

3. What is a hazard? • A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm e.g. working at height on scaffolding.

4. What is risk? • A risk is the likelihood that a hazard will cause a specified harm to someone or something e.g. if there are no guard rails on the scaffolding it is likely that a construction worker will fall and break a bone. 

5. What is risk management? • Risk Management is a process that involves assessing the risks that arise in your workplace, putting sensible health and safety measures in place to control them and then making sure they work in practice.

6. What is risk assessment? • A risk assessment is nothing more than a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh up whether you have taken enough precautions or should do more to prevent harm.

7. What do "ALARP" and “SFAIRP” mean? • ALARP stands for “as low as reasonably practicable” • SFAIRP stands for “so far as is reasonably practicable”. • In essence, these are the same; however, SFAIRP is the term most often used in the Health and Safety at Work etc Act and in Regulations, and; ALARP is the term used by risk practitioners.

8. What does “reasonably practicable” mean? • This means that you have to take action to control the health and safety risks in your workplace except where the cost (in terms of time and effort as well as money) of doing so is “grossly disproportionate” to the reduction in the risk. You can work this out for yourself, or you can simply apply accepted good practice.

9. Why is risk assessment important? • Managing health and safety risks puts you in control since it leaves your business less open to chance. • A risk assessment helps to prevent accidents and ill health to you, your workers and members of the public. • Accidents and ill health can ruin lives and harm your business too if output is lost, equipment is damaged, insurance costs increase or you have to go to court. • Organisations are legally required to assess the risks in their workplace so that they can put in place a plan to control the risks.

10. A Risk Assessment Matrix • Using a matrix can be very helpful for prioritising actions. It is suitable for very many assessments but particularly lends itself to more complex situations.  • However, it does require a fair degree of expertise and experience to judge the likelihood of harm accurately. • Getting this wrong could result in applying unnecessary controls or failing to take important ones. People working full-time in health and safety often use a version of this method.

11. The 6 Steps to Risk Assessment

12. What is the precautionary principle? • The precautionary principle should be applied only in very particular circumstances. It is highly unlikely to be relevant to your work. • The precautionary principle says that where you have good reason to believe that something might cause harm but there isn’t enough scientific knowledge to carry out a full risk assessment, this should not be used as an excuse to do nothing to prevent harm. • The precautionary principle is therefore applied to a few new hazards until enough is learned about the risks they present. It should not be applied to well-known hazards where the broad level of risk has been established

13. Health and safety in the entertainment and leisure industry

14. Health & Safety in Leisure • The entertainment and leisure industry covers a wide range of activities, from fairgrounds to film locations and from sports facilities to play areas. • The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not always enforce health and safety at entertainment and leisure locations; it may be the responsibility of the relevant local authority department to ensure that health and safety is properly managed at some sites. • However, all entertainment and leisure locations involve a great deal of interaction with members of the public.

15. Health & Safety in Leisure • Fatalities to employees in these industries are comparatively rare but serious injuries do occur. • The main causes of injuries continue to be: • falls from height • workplace transport • slips and trips • manual handling

16. HSE and entertainment and leisure • HSE is organised into a number of directorates, the largest of which is the Field Operations Directorate (FOD). FOD is the main 'operational arm' of HSE and consists of HSE Inspectors, Industry Sector Groups and support staff/departments. • HSE currently has five industry sector groups, each dealing with different sectors of industry. • Entertainment and leisure is a section of the Commercial and Consumer Services, Transportation and Utilities Sector (CACTUS).

17. HSE Inspectors • HSE has a large number of operational inspectors who deal with the entertainment and leisure industries on a day-to-day basis. • The local authorities also provide a large number of environmental health inspectors who are trained to carry out this work in areas where the local authorities have enforcement responsibilities. • Enforcement responsibility is determined by the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1998

18. National Fairground Inspection Team • A number of HSE inspectors are attached to the National Fairground Inspection Team (NFIT). They have a specific role to play in the enforcement of the relevant statutory provisions throughout the fairgrounds industry. • This is achieved using a range of methods including: • on-site inspections (announced and unannounced); • investigations of accidents and complaints; • providing guidance and support at visits and by telephone; • enforcement where necessary