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An assessment of risk is no more than a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh up whether you have taken enough precautions or should do more to prevent harm. The aim is to make sure that no-one gets hurt or becomes ill.

Even if you are self-employed, and do not have employees, you still need to assess health and safety risks which may affect you and others, eg other contractors, office staff, members of the public.

There are also other highly specialised risks such as major hazards, ionising radiation, genetic manipulation etc.

They all require you to do certain things to help you take decisions about what to do to prevent people being harmed. However, the risk assessment provisions of the Management Regulations are rather special. They require employers and self-employed people to assess the risks created by their undertaking so as to identify the measures they need to have in place to comply with their duties under health and safety law. As such, the assessment provisions of the Management Regulations are superimposed over all other workplace health and safety legislation including the general duties in the Health and Safety at Work Act.

The Management Regulations risk assessment provisions are very wide-ranging and allembracing. They are comprehensive in coverage of places, activities and other sources of hazard. They require you to assess all the risks in your workplace. That is, what could cause harm to yourself, your employees (if any) and members of the public, and the likelihood that harm will occur in practice. You then need to decide on the precautions you must take to prevent the harm happening. In doing so you will have to take account of the specific things that the law says you must do (in regulations for example), available guidance on good practice, and what is reasonably practicable.

The risk assessment provisions in the other regulations are much more specific and generally require you to do particular things for certain groups of people and/or if certain conditions are met. For example, if there is a risk of people breathing in asbestos dust because of your activities, you will have to find out the type of asbestos you have in your workplace and how much of it people are likely to breathe in, before you can decide on the precautions you need to take to prevent people being harmed. You will find other examples as you read this guide.

In all cases employers and self-employed people are responsible for assessing the risks and seeing that it is adequately done, except for the Display Screen Regulations where, if you are a self-employed person, you don't have to undertake an analysis of workstations. But remember, under the Management Regulations self-employed people will still have to satisfy themselves that they are not at risk when working with display screens.

You don't have to carry out assessments yourself. You can assess the risks and record the significant findings yourself if you are confident that you can do so but, if not, you can get help from a competent source. Remember to consult and involve your workforce. Your employees and their representatives know first hand what the risks in the workplace are and will often be able to offer practical solutions to controlling them.

The Management Regulations require you to assess risks to the health and safety of anyone that may be affected by your activities - yourself, workers and members of the public. However, you will have to check whether the other regulations require you to do certain things for all or some of these people. For example, the Display Screen Regulations require employers to assess workstations for health and safety risks to their workers and self-employed people working for them, but not members of the public. Similarly, the Manual Handling Regulations require you to assess risks to yourself and your employees (if any) but not to members of the public.

Here again you must remember that under the Management Regulations you have to make sure that members of the public are not harmed by your activities. For example, if you invite members of the public to use display screens, you have to ensure that they can do so without risks to their health and safety, using good practice and what is reasonably practicable as a guide.

The Management Regulations in effect require you to examine what in your work could cause harm to people so that you can weigh up whether you have taken enough precautions or should do more to meet what the law says you must do. However, the risk assessment provisions in the other regulations covering specific hazards often tell you in more detail what you need to examine. For example, the Manual Handling Regulations list the factors that you must consider if you or your workers have to lift loads that could cause injury.

The risk assessment provisions in all these regulations say that your assessment of risks must be either 'adequate' or 'suitable and sufficient'. These mean the same thing and tell you that you do not have to be over-complicated. In deciding the amount of effort you put into assessing risks, you have to judge whether the hazards are significant and whether you have them covered by satisfactory precautions so that the risks are small.

Though the Management Regulations do not say so, in practice you have to assess the risks in your workplace before you begin any new work. Many of the other specific regulations (eg COSHH) tell you that you cannot start work before you have assessed the risks they cover, or tell you at what stage you have to do certain things. For example, if noise in your workplace is at or exceeds a certain level then the Noise Regulations assessment provisions require you to do certain things.

The Management Regulations and some of the other regulations require those of you who have five or more employees to record the significant findings of your assessment. However, if you have to do the specific things that the risk assessment provisions of the Noise Regulations or the Asbestos Regulations require, then you have to keep a record of every assessment, even if you have less than five employees.

All the regulations require that you review your assessment and revise it as necessary. They all say that you have to do this if you 'suspect that your assessment is no longer valid or there has been a significant change', or words to that effect. The COSHH, Lead and Asbestos Regulations also say that you must reviewyour assessment regularly. This is good practice anyway and Five steps recommends this be done for assessments made under other regulations.

The basis of British health and safety law is the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The Act sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, and employees have to themselves and to each other. These duties are qualified in the Act by the principle of ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’. In other words, an employer does not have to take measures to avoid or reduce the risk if they are technically impossible or if the time, trouble or cost of the measures would be grossly disproportionate to the risk. What the law requires here is what good management and common sense would lead employers to do anyway: that is, to look at what the risks are and take sensible measures to tackle them.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (the Management Regulations) generally make more explicit what employers are required to do to manage health and safety under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Like the Act, they apply to every work activity.

The main requirement on employers is to carry out a risk assessment. Employers with five or more employees need to record the significant findings of the risk assessment. Risk assessment should be straightforward in a simple workplace such as a typical office. It should only be complicated if it deals with serious hazards such as those on a nuclear power station, a chemical plant, laboratory or an oil rig.

Besides carrying out a risk assessment, employers also need to:

make arrangements for implementing the health and safety measures identified as necessary by the risk assessment;
appoint competent people (often themselves or company colleagues) to help them to implement the arrangements;
set up emergency procedures;
provide clear information and training to employees;
work together with other employers sharing the same workplace.

Other regulations require action in response to particular hazards, or in industries where hazards are particularly high. Many are not qualified by ‘reasonable practicability’.

EUROPEAN LAW

In recent years much of Britain’s health and safety law has originated in Europe. Proposals from the European Commission may be agreed by Member States, who are then responsible for making them part of their domestic law.

Modern health and safety law in this country, including much of that from Europe, is based on the principle of risk assessment described above.

ACTION ON HEALTH AND SAFETY: OPTIONS

The Health and Safety Commission and its operating arm, the Executive (HSC/E), have spent over twenty years modernising the structure of health and safety law. Their aims are to protect the health, safety and welfare of employees, and to safeguard others, principally the public, who may be exposed to risks from work activity. HSC/E consult fully with people affected by their legislative proposals, and adopt various approaches based on assessing and controlling risk.

Among the things that can prompt action from HSC/E are:

changes in technologies, industries or risks;
evidence of accidents and ill health, plus public concern;
European Directives.

Where HSC/E consider action is necessary to supplement existing arrangements, their three main options are:

guidance;
Approved Codes of Practice; and
regulations.

HSC/E try to take whichever option, or options, allows employers most flexibility and costs them least, while providing proper safeguards for employees and the public.

REGULATIONS

Regulations are law, approved by Parliament. These are usually made under the Health and Safety at Work Act, following proposals from HSC. This applies to regulations based on EC Directives as well as ‘home-grown’ ones. The Health and Safety at Work Act, and general duties in the Management Regulations, are goal-setting nd leave employers freedom to decide how to control risks which they identify. Guidance and Approved Codes of Practice give advice. But some risks are so great, or the proper control measures so costly, that it would not be appropriate to leave employers discretion in deciding what to do about them. Regulations identify these risks and set out specific action that must be taken. Often these requirements are absolute - to do something without qualification by whether it is reasonably practicable.

HOW REGULATIONS APPLY

Some regulations apply across all companies, such as the Manual Handling Regulations which apply wherever things are moved by hand or bodily force, and the Display Screen Equipment Regulations which apply wherever VDUs are used. Other regulations apply to hazards unique to specific industries, such as mining or nuclear.

Besides the Health and Safety at Work Act itself, the following apply across the full range of workplaces:

1 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999: require employers to carry out risk assessments, make arrangements to implement necessary measures, appoint competent people and arrange for appropriate information and training.

2 Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992: cover a wide range of basic health, safety and welfare issues such as ventilation, heating, lighting, workstations, seating and welfare facilities.

3 Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992: set out requirements for work with Visual Display Units (VDUs).

4 Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992: require employers to provide appropriate protective clothing and equipment for their employees.

5 Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998: require that equipment provided for use at work, including machinery, is safe.

6 Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992: cover the moving of objects by hand or bodily force.

7 Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981: cover requirements for first aid.

8 The Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations 1989: require employers to display a poster telling employees what they need to know about health and safety.

9 Employers’Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969: require employers to take out insurance against accidents and ill health to their employees.

SOME IMPORTANT PIECES OF HEALTH AND SAFETY LEGISLATION

10 Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR): require employers to notify certain occupational injuries, diseases and dangerous events.

11 Noise at Work Regulations 1989: require employers to take action to protect employees from hearing damage.

12 Electricity at Work Regulations 1989: require people in control of electrical systems to ensure they are safe to use and maintained in a safe condition.

13 Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH): require employers to assess the risks from hazardous substances and take appropriate precautions. In addition, specific regulations cover particular areas, for example asbestos and lead, and:

14 Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2002: require suppliers to classify, label and package dangerous chemicals and provide safety data sheets for them.

15 Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994: cover safe systems of work on construction sites.

16 Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1994: cover safe installation, maintenance and use of gas systems and appliances in domestic and commercial premises.

17 Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999: require those who manufacture, store or transport dangerous chemicals or explosives in certain quantities to notify the relevant authority.

18 Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002: require employers and the self-employed to carry out a risk assessment of work activities involving dangerous substances.

Some users may get aches and pains in their hands, wrists, arms, neck, shoulders or back, especially after long periods of uninterrupted VDU work. ‘Repetitive strain injury’ (RSI) has become a popular term for these aches, pains and disorders, but can be misleading - it means different things to different people. A better medical name for this whole group of conditions is ‘upper limb disorders’. Usually these disorders do not last, but in a few cases they may become persistent or even disabling.

HOW CAN I AVOID THESE ACHES, PAINS AND DISORDERS?

Problems of this kind may have a physical cause, but may also be more likely if a VDU user feels stressed by the work. Problems can often be avoided by good workplace design, so that your employees can work comfortably, and by good working practices (like taking frequent short breaks from the VDU). Prevention is easiest if action is taken early, before the problem has become serious.

People who use a VDU sometimes complain of stress, but this usually arises from increased pace of work or pressure to meet deadlines, not the VDU itself. Some VDU workers find stress reduced because the VDU makes their job easier or more interesting, but for others stress becomes worse. This can happen when a system does not work well or when the user does not feel in control or competent to operate it. Employers can help overcome stress by providing the right training, and by designing systems and tasks to match the abilities of the people who work with them.