Appointment of Risk Assessor

RISK ASSESSOR

LEGAL REFERENCE – Construction regulation 7(1)

7.Risk assessment.

(1)Every contractor performing construction work shall before the commencement of any construction work and during construction work, cause a risk assessment to be performed by a competent person appointed in writing and the risk assessment shall form part of the health and safety plan to be applied on the site and shall include at least

(a) the identification of the risks and hazards to which persons may be exposed to;

(b) the analysis and evaluation of the risks and hazards identified;

(c) a documented plan of safe work procedures to mitigate, reduce or control the risks and hazards that have been identified;

(d) a monitoring plan; and

(e) a review plan.

EXPLANATION:

Before even discussing this regulation one must be aware of the fact that section 8 of the Act requires that risk assessments be carried out. The legislature obviously deemed it necessary to place further emphasis on the need for risk assessments to be carried out in respect of construction work.

This regulation requires that every contractor carrying out construction work shall cause a risk assessment to be carried out before the commencement and during construction work. This means that a number of risk assessments will have to be carried out and that all contractors shall have to carry out a risk assessment in respect of the specific tasks that they are required to complete. This means that at any one time on a construction site there may be numerous persons carrying out risk assessments.

An area of concern is the risk assessment that must be carried out prior to the commencement of work on a construction site. This is an on-plan risk assessment and is not that easy to carry out and in many cases serious hazards may be overlooked by an inexperienced person. The legislation also does not stipulate specific frequency of risk assessment and it is recommended that a specific plan of action in this regard be drawn up and that the requirements of this plan be met.

The legislation also requires that a competent person be appointed to carry out the risk assessment. Here again we sit with the competency requirement and care must be taken to ensure that such appointed person is in fact competent to carry out the task as envisaged by this regulation.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT, ACT 85 OF 1993

CR 7(1) – RISK ASSESSOR

APPOINTMENT

I, ______, the 16.2 appointee of (area)______hereby appoint you, ______, as risk assessor (site address/area) ______.

In terms of this appointment you are required to ensure that the necessary risk assessments are carried out before the commencement of, and during, construction work. The mentioned risk assessments shall include at least the following:

1the identification of the risks and hazards to which persons may be exposed;

2the analysis and evaluation of the risks and hazards identified;

3a documented plan of safe work procedures to mitigate, reduce or control each of the identified risks and hazards; and

4a monitoring-and-review plan.

You are further required to ensure that a copies of the latest, updated risk assessments are available, on site, for inspection and that the (construction safety officer, supervisor name)______isin possession of such risk assessments.

Any problems which you may experience in the execution of this appointment must be reported to (name)______.

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Signature Date

______

ACCEPTANCE

I,______,understand the implications of the appointment as detailed above and confirm my acceptance thereof.

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SignatureDate