Risk assessment is a practical and methodical procedure for identifying work-related hazards, and for evaluating the risks associated with them. The aim is to eliminate or put in place controls to deal with these risks.

Any task will be performed more efficiently and effectively if some forethought is given to where it is to be performed, how it will be implemented, and what the expected outcome will be. Risk assessment is an essential part of that planning process and forms the basis of a health and safety management system.

A risk assessment will enable you to deal with hazards according to their health and safety propriety. It is also an opportunity to gain a commitment to health and safety by all employees of the company.

There is a legal requirement imposed on all employers and self-employed to:

• Use competent personnel to identify the hazards;
• Make suitable and sufficient assessments of all the health and safety risks in their work activities, posed to the employees and anyone else affected by them;
• Determine and implement remedial actions which will remove or reduce those risks to an acceptable level; and
• Put in place a management programme to ensure that the controls are maintained.