Risk Assessment Procedure template

2. When to carry out or revisit an assessment

• Before a new task, machine, substance or work area is introduced.
• When a process, layout, staffing level or shift pattern changes materially.
• After any accident, near miss or work-related ill-health report connected to the task.
• When an assessment's review date falls due.
• When someone who needs specific consideration joins the task: [young workers, new and expectant mothers, disabled staff, lone workers].

3. Roles and responsibilities

• Assessment owner ([name/role]): maintains the risk assessment register, sets review dates, and signs off assessments for higher-risk activities.
• Assessors ([names/roles]): competent people trained in this procedure who carry out and write up assessments.
• Managers and supervisors: implement the controls, brief their teams, and confirm the controls are being followed in practice.
• All staff: follow the controls, and report to [role] when a control fails, is unworkable, or a hazard has been missed.

4. Before you start

1. 1Gather what already exists: previous assessments, manufacturer instructions, safety data sheets, and accident or near-miss records for the task.
2. 2Walk the task where it actually happens — assess in the room, not from a desk.
3. 3Talk to the people who do the job; they know the shortcuts and failure points no manager sees.
4. 4Check whether anyone doing the task needs specific consideration: [young workers, new and expectant mothers, disabled staff, lone workers].

5. Step-by-step: carrying out the assessment

1. 1Identify the hazards — anything with the potential to cause harm: equipment, substances, the environment, and the way the work is organised.
2. 2Decide who could be harmed and how: staff doing the task, others nearby, contractors, visitors, and members of the public.
3. 3Evaluate the risk — how likely is the harm and how serious would it be, taking account of the controls already in place.
4. 4Decide what further controls are needed using the hierarchy in the next section, and give each one an owner and a deadline.
5. 5Record the significant findings on [form/system]: the hazards, who is at risk, existing and new controls, the owner, and the review date.
6. 6Brief everyone who does the task on the findings and controls before the assessment is filed.

6. Choosing controls

Work down this hierarchy and only settle for a lower level where the higher ones are not reasonably practicable:

• Eliminate the hazard entirely — change the process, buy pre-cut stock, stop doing the task.
• Substitute something less hazardous — a safer chemical, a lighter container.
• Engineer the risk away — guards, local ventilation, barriers, mechanical aids.
• Administrative controls — safe systems of work, training, signage, job rotation, supervision.
• Personal protective equipment — the last layer, never the first answer.

7. Records and proof of completion

Completed assessments are stored in [system/location] and indexed in a register showing owner and review date. Team briefings on new or changed assessments are recorded with names and dates in [system].

Superseded versions are kept for [period] so we can show exactly which controls applied on any given date — that history is what an investigation asks for.

8. If something goes wrong

If an accident or near miss happens on an assessed task, treat it as evidence the assessment failed somewhere: review the assessment as part of the investigation and update it before the task resumes.

If a control proves unworkable in practice, staff report it to [role] rather than quietly working around it. A control nobody follows is a paper control, and paper controls fail audits and people in the same week.

9. Review

Every assessment carries its own review date set by the assessor: [frequency, e.g. annually] is our default, shorter for higher-risk tasks. This procedure itself is reviewed [frequency] by [name/role]. Next review due: [date].