Once you have Identified a Hazard / Risk, then you need to Assess it…
Assessing the Risks
Assessing risk involves considering what could happen if someone is exposed to a hazard and the likelihood of it happening.
Carrying out a risk assessment can help you evaluate the potential risks that may be involved in an activity or undertaking.
A risk assessment can help determine:
- how severe a risk is
- whether any existing control measures are effective
- what action you should take to control the risk
- how urgently the action needs to be taken.
A risk assessment should be done when:
- there is uncertainty about how a hazard may result in injury or illness
- the work activity involves a number of different hazards and there is a lack of understanding about how the hazards may interact with each other to produce new or greater risks
- changes at the workplace occur that may impact on the effectiveness of control measures.
It is a legal requirement to carry out a risk assessment for high risk activities such as entry into confined spaces, diving work and live electrical work.
A risk assessment can be carried out with varying degrees of detail depending on the type of hazards and the information, data and resources you have available.
It can be as simple as a discussion with your workers or involve specific risk analysis tools and techniques recommended by safety professionals.
For more information about how to carry out a risk assessment, refer to the model Code of Practice: How to manage work health and safety risks.
