HEALTH & SAFETY INFORMATION
ServiceMaster Ltd
Reference:003/2013
Date:17.04.13
To:CS, MM & TG Business Owners
Subject: Importance & Relevance of Risk Assessments
At a ServiceMaster Limited Health & Safety Committee meeting held recently a question was raised about the understanding of the importance and relevance of the following:-
Risk Assessments
Under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) employers have a duty to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees, customers, visitors and members of the public. The easiest way to manage this issue is to examine all aspects of the work carried out both routinely and non routinely within your business, the tool to use is to carry out Risk Assessments.
The HSWA states that if you employ 5 or more people within your company you must by law produce a written Risk Assessment. We at ServiceMaster Limited recommend that even if you employ less than 5 people that you have written risk assessments. As, if you find yourself in a situation where an incident as occurred at work, requiring investigation by a HSE Inspector, he/she is going to ask what you had in place that could have prevented the incident. A risk assessment recorded either in your mind or on a scrap of paper will not be seen as having sufficient control over your working practices.
Q. Is a Risk Assessment a Legal Requirement?
A. Yes if you are an employer or self employed. It is a legal requirement for every employer and self-employed person to make an assessment of the health and safety risks arising out of his work. The purpose of the assessment is to identify what needs to be done to control health and safety risks. Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Q. How do I do a Risk Assessment?
A. To do a Risk Assessment, you need to understand what, in your business, might cause harm to other people and decide whether you are doing enough to prevent that harm. Once you have decided that, you need to identify and prioritise putting in place appropriate and sensible control measures.
Start by using the five steps to risk assessment:
- Identify the hazards
- Decide who might be harmed and how
- Evaluate the risks and decide on the appropriate controls
- Record you findings and implement them
- Review and update your assessment as necessary
Q. Who is responsible for doing a Risk Assessment?
A. As an employer or a self-employed person, you are responsible for health and safety in your business. You can delegate the task, but ultimately you are responsible. You will neeed to make sure that whoever does the risk assessment:
- Is competent to do so
- Involves your workers in the process
- Understands when specialist help might be needed
When a risk assessment has been completed, the findings must be shown and discussed with all the employees affected by them, to show further diligence the employer should record such a discussion in the training records of these employees.
To assist all business owners with the productions of risk assessments on there are examples of generic risk assessments that can be used to assess the risk in almost all of the tasks routinely carried out with our franchised businesses. For non routine tasks there is a blank document that can be used. All of the assessments are produced in word allowing you add or delete hazards or control measures you find or wish to put into place during your assessment.
If you have any questions about anything highlighted in this message please do not hesitate to contact me.
Don Pringle
Head of Supply & Systems
ServiceMaster Limited will endeavour to supply franchisees with digests and information in order to help them with their legal responsibility to comply with the Health and Safety Legislation.
ServiceMaster Limited is not a qualified Health and Safety Advisory body.
Form No 39Issue 1