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Why do a risk assessment?
Legal responsibilities
 As well as your management responsibilities, you also have legal obligations
where health and safety risk assessment is concerned.
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
Known as the HASWA, this legislation was introduced in 1974 to make employers responsible for
ensuring that employees (and others) are safeguarded from any harm
that could result from the business's activities.
Alongside the act, which is fairly general, there are a number of
regulations that apply to specfic working situations and places of work.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (MHSWR) 1999
This key set of regulations specifically require all employers
to carry out a suitable risk assessment in the workplace.
In addition to these, there are several other regulations covering
secific work situations. Some of these, like the Control
of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) also require
that a specific risk assessment is carried out for that particular situation.
There's no need to be alarmed by the vast amount of legislation out there.
You only really need to be aware of the regulations that relate to what's going on in
your particular business. For a full list of the main regulations you should be aware of,
follow the link on the toolbar to the toolkit and choose 'important legislation'.
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