All life is a risk. That has to be accepted. But modern society recognises that risks to health and safety can be reduced by the taking of reasonably practicable steps. This principle is the basis of modern UK employment health and safety law.

Under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, every employer is required to take such reasonably practical steps as are necessary to safeguard the health safety and welfare of its employees, and all arrangements for companies employing five or more persons must be written down. The requirement for risk assessment is spelt out and developed through the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Here, every employer is required to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the health and safety risks to employees and other persons not in his employment to which his activities give rise. The significant findings of any risk assessment must be recorded and appropriate control measures put in place. Those significant findings must be brought to the attention of the employees involved.

Many activities carried out by an employer are repetitive; the hazards are known; the appropriate control measures are known and applied. Under these circumstances generic risk assessments are appropriate as long as they are regularly reviewed. However, where a contributing factor varies, then a new risk assessment must be carried out, unique to that activity. A good example of this is provided by the construction industry.

The hazards associated with a particular construction operation will be well known and a generic risk assessment written, but the mere change in location may well introduce new hazards or affect the control measures applicable. It is usual, therefore, to produce a generic risk assessment for an activity and then to write a site-based assessment. Only in this way can an employer be reasonably assured that he has covered those ‘reasonably practicable steps’ in terms of risk assessment.

But who should carry out those risk assessments? There is a question of the competence of a person to carry this out. To effectively assess the hazards and determine the appropriate control measures requires a combination of training and experience.