Crossing the road, to take a simple example, demonstrates the principles involved in risk assessment. Risk assessment is therefore nothing new and something we have been doing for hundreds of years, but has only relatively recently been formulated into legislation.

Regulation 3 of The Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 now explicitly requires risk assessments to be undertaken. The purpose of the risk assessment process is to systematically identify significant risks, identify appropriate control measures such as safe systems of work, prioritise action to minimise this risk and thereby protect people and property from harm. It is not possible to eliminate all risk, but you are expected to protect your employees as far as is "reasonably practicable"

Once you have completed your risk assessments, it is important to put your results into practice. If you need to make any improvements, you should produce an action plan to deal with the most important first. You should review your assessments on an regular basis, the ones with the higher risk more frequently, to make sure that they remain up to date and effective.

Carrying out and implementing the requirements of good quality risk assessments is good management practice and will provide the following benefits:

• Clear and unambiguous safe systems of work
• Avoidance of injury to employees
• Avoidance of legal action from criminal prosecution by bodies such as the Health & Safety Executive
• The provision of robust evidence to defend any employee claims that are made under current legislation.
• A combination of the above will result in both low accident frequency and severity and potentially lower employer liability insurance premiums.

Abacus Safety Services can provide the protocols and necessary documentation to carry out and properly record your risk assessments.