Government approved codes of practice for health and safety regulations say that a 'suitable and sufficient' risk assessment should take into account the following:
*ACOP Any risks arising from or in connection with work.
This includes any work happening away from the main site. You must also take into account that different groups of people may be more vulnerable than others. For example young or inexperienced employees can be at a higher risk. The law requires that a specific assessment is made for activities where young people are involved.
*ACOP All the people who may be affected by your business's activities.
You need consider everyone - from employees to passers by - anyone who could be affected by what your business is doing.
*ACOP Activities covered by specific regulations.
If there's work going on that involves activities or materials that have specific health and safety regulations refering to them (such as the manual handling or COSHH regulations) then these must have a separate risk assessment. This can be included in your main risk assessment if it's simple enough.
*ACOP The assessment and subsequent action must address the risks and how these can be reduced as far as possible.
This is very important as the risk assessment alone is not enough to comply with legal requirements, it has to be followed up with the necessary action to actually reduce risks in the workplace.In the next part of this tutorial, you'll learn how to take a structured approach to the risk assessment process by breaking it down into steps. This makes it easier to be sure your risk assessment covers everything it needs to, making it 'suitable and sufficient'.
