General Risk Assessments

Controlling the risks in the workplace is part of managing the health and safety of any business. An employer must consider what could cause harm to employees and ask are the appropriate steps in place to prevent any harm. This is known as a risk assessment.

A hazard is anything that could cause harm to a person for example working at heights, debris on a walkway could be a potential trip hazard, and working with chemicals or electricity etc. a common classification of hazards is,

• Physical: lifting, trips & slips, machinery, computer equipment etc.
• Mental: excess workload, long hours, high need customers etc.
• Chemical: cleaning fluids, asbestos, aerosols etc.
• Biological: infectious diseases such as TB, hepatitis and others faced by various staff in caring professions.

The risk is a low or high chance that someone could be harmed by the hazards and how serious the harm could be. Employers must establish who is at risk starting with full time part time staff and assess risks from visitors, clients and possible members of public on any work site. Employers have to be aware of special duties young workers, disabled, night workers, pregnant or breastfeeding workers may require.

EHSC can carry out general risk, PUWER, PPE, Legionella, Manual Handling assessments.

Our consultants are NVQ LVL5 trained in Occupational Health and Safety Practice and are both graduate members of IOSH – Grad IOSH.