1. The Difference Between a HAZARD and a RISK

Once you’ve understood the difference between a HAZARD and a RISK, the assessment process will become clear.

HAZARD

A hazard is ANYTHING WITH THE POTENTIAL TO CAUSE HARM.

A hazard can be a piece of work equipment, a work operation, unsafe premises, chemicals, confined spaces, another person (e.g. an untrained colleague, a young person, a pregnant woman, a difficult client and so on), environmental conditions, dust – anything connected to the work your organisation undertakes which could cause harm to anyone.  And “anyone” means staff, customers, suppliers, members of the public, passers-by, visitors – in fact anyone affected by what you do.

Identifying hazards is the most difficult part of risk assessing because if you get this wrong, or miss a hazard, the rest of the process is compromised.  It is NOT just down to the Competent Person to identify all hazards.  All workers should be consulted with, and they must contribute to risk assessing.  After all, who is better placed to know what hazards are faced other than those actually doing the work?

And remember, risk assessing is never finished.  RA's must be reviewed, at least annually.  An accident or near miss can alert you to additional hazards that no-one had identified before: analysing the causes of incidents often leads to amendments to risk assessments, making the workplace even safer.

RISK

A risk is THE LIKELIHOOD OF THE HAZARD CAUSING HARM AND THE POSSIBLE IMPACT OF THAT HARM. 

Imagine a battery-powered forklift operating in a warehouse.  Think of the harm this forklift could cause: collisions with other people in the warehouse, collisions with racking, operation by an unauthorised and/or untrained driver could result in serious injuries and damage, a malfunction could result in serious injuries and/or damage, charging the batteries can cause fire (this list is not exhaustive – there could be other examples of harm that could be caused).  Make a list of all the types of harm that could occur and then decide for each how LIKELY it is that this could happen – for example low, medium or high likelihood.

Then, for each listed hazard, decide how SEVERE that harm could be e.g. resulting in death or serious injury, resulting in more than 3 days off work, resulting in minor scratches and bruises.

The next page in this section will explain how to conduct a How to Write a Risk Assessment using the information you have gathered by following the explanations above.

Health and Safety Myth

Difference between hazard and myth

Serving hot drinks to staff at a dog show was banned on the grounds of health and safety, because passing them from the drinks' trolley attendant to the staff might be dangerous.

There should be no health or safety reason for banning trolley attendants from serving hot drinks to ring stewards and judges at a dog show.  The risk is unlikely to be any different from many other locations where hot drinks trolleys are used (including moving trains).  This is an over-reaction to an easily manageable risk, and seeking a solution that allows staff to have a hot drink would be preferable to using 'health and safety' as an excuse.