Risk Assessment

[Roderick]

You did miss my main point though; what happens if something nasty happens and it's not on an RA, has not been covered by the induction.

 

This started in another thread but I thought it would be better to start a new one as it is such an important topic.

Please note that my comments are based on my understanding of the Australian system and outlined in AS4360. I believe the UK to be similar but can't say that for sure. Anywhere else, please check with your local authorities - and please let us know, I am very interested how things work in other countries.

 

To answer Paul's question I will have to go back to the purpose of the risk assessment.

First a few definitions:

Hazard: A hazard is a source of potential harm or a situation with the potential to cause harm.

Risk: A risk is the chance of something happening that will have an impact on objectives. It is measured in terms of consequences and likelihood. In the OHS context, risk should be thought of as the OHS consequence of a given severity, and the likelihood of that particular consequence occurring.

Consequence: The outcome of an event.

Likelihood: The probability or frequency of an event. In OHS terms, this means the probability or frequency of the consequences of an event.

Risk Rating: The procedure that produces a risk level for the activity. This a combination of the consequence of a risk and the likelihood it will occur.

 

Under Australian Law every employer has a 'duty of care' (or responsibility) to provide all their staff, visitors and contractors with a safe place of work or visit. In short, nothing an employer does, or allows to happen, within their place of work may harm anyone in anyway. That is a pretty tall order and in reality nearly impossible. An employer also has a moral obligation to provide a safe place of work, to ensure that everyone goes home at the end of the day in the same condition as they arrived.

The law makers have realised that there are and always will be hazards in every workplace and much of the legislation recognises that but it does require the employer to control and minimise those hazards to minimise the risk.

How do you do that? Enter SL - the Risk Assessment!

Why a risk assessment? Well, if you don't know which hazards are lurking around then the chances of you doing anything about them are pretty slim.

Who writes a risk assessment? The source of much confusion. Many people think that the OH&S person is the best suited for that job. Wrong. The OH&S person will have some input in some of the stages in the process but is unlikely to be the most suitable person for the job. In fact there is not one single person who could do that. A good risk assessment is written by everyone involved in the job. Don't hit that reply button yet, please let me finish ;)

The first step in the assessment (identify the hazards) can only be done in consultation, no one will be across all segments, in detail, of any event, concert, production or whatever. So you must allow everyone to participate in that step. In the long term you'll see patterns develop and you can simplify the process but for starters, that's what you need to do. Work Method Statements are always a good start but depending on the size and complexity of the event you may need to get a bit more detail. The biggest problem we have in this industry is that you often have to assess hazards and risks that haven't materialised yet. What today is a great big empty space will in a couple of days be crawling with people, have a whopping big suspended lighting rig, enough PA to burst your eardrums, drapes and stuff everywhere - but it isn't there when you conduct your risk assessment.

You will have to rely on the experience of your crew and contractors (or 'vendors' but I hate that term) to compile a comprehensive list of hazards.

The next step is then to rate all the hazards with a risk rating and provide controls based on those findings. Again that is an area where you will need input from everyone, and some from your OH&S person. Without consultation you may come up with the best possible solution ever, if it totally impractical people will only look at it, think "you got to be f***ing joking" and completely ignore it. It is much better to reach a compromise that is workable and will be followed. The heightened awareness of the risk will also assist in minimising it's occurrence.

 

Now, back to the original question: what happens if you miss something and it happens?

Two options: Either the risk was so unforeseeable that it was not reasonable to expect it (ie. a burst watermain in the street soaks your powersupply) in which case you have little to worry about, legally speaking or it was a clear omission from your assessment. In the latter case, if you can show that you went through the risk assessment process with due diligence by showing a comprehensive risk assessment, you may be held liable but possibly only partial. But if your assessment just states"It is all good, no risks here - Pete" than you are likely to be hit very hard as you clearly breached your duty of care AND showed little respect for your employees, visitors and contractors.

[JimWebber]

Hi There,

 

As I understand it, here in the UK, the only legal requirement is that a risk assessment be produced. There is no requirement for it to be absolutely comprehensive.

 

When I did my RA's course (Some four years ago now, admittedly) I was told that an employer can be legally held responsible for the presence of a RA, not it's accuracy or content.

 

Of course I may be very wrong???

 

Jim

[Roderick]

As I understand it, here in the UK, the only legal requirement is that a risk assessment be produced. There is no requirement for it to be absolutely comprehensive.

 

Of course I may be very wrong???

 

Hi Jim,

 

With all respect, I do hope you are wrong.

What is the point of a risk assessment if not really comprehensive? Unless it is a ploy to keep a bunch of people in jobs they shouldn't have and destroy a few more rain-forests in the process....

I would be really, really disappointed if the UK risk assessments are just a 'paper pushing' exercise rather than a tool to improve workplace safety

[Brian]

...I was told that an employer can be legally held responsible for the presence of a RA, not it's accuracy or content.

 

Of course I may be very wrong???

This point would be tested in court where you can certainly have the fact that your risk assessments were not 'suitable and sufficient' used against you in a prosecution for a breach of the HSWA. And you can be prosecuted even if no-one is injured.

[JimWebber]

Fair enough, I do stand corrected!

[Nicktaylor]

I think the point Jim might have been making is that if a Risk Assessment is carried out and measures taken to elliminate the potential for harm as far is practible, then if an issue comes to court the employer will have some level of defence. Regardless if something was missed off the RA in the first place. Without it the book will be thrown very hard !

[MarkPAman]

I think that the likelihood part may be the key to this one. If it is something that is relatively likely to happen then it should have been in the risk assessment. If it is something so unusual that the competent person / people doing the RA didn't think of it then that is fair enough.

As an example, we had a car come partly through the door and wall of one of our rehearsal spaces. Now if the room had been in use at the time, somebody would have got hurt, but as it happened the room was empty. I have confirmed with our H&S officer that he does not want this possibility adding to the RA for this room, as he would never expect it to happen again.

[kerry davies]

http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/fivesteps.htm

Yet again folks, the answers are here. If you are not the employer/self-employed person or someone who is "competent" to help with RAs, cannot judge what is "reasonably practicable" then you have no RA to miss anything from. The employer makes the assessment! You may be unable to show "due diligence" if it came to court, and should be adhering to your employers RA rather than making one out for him.

Practically though, lists of hazards do exist, H&S should be integral to ALL work and experience counts. The "jobsworth" comments are the result of the general public and the "compensation culture" myths prevalent in the UK, not the HSE, safety officers or EHO's. These are merely doing a job and if you show by example that you are safety minded they are normally OK.

[GregB]

What if:

Your employer is incompetent and their RA is insufficiently comprehnsive for your work area.

 

You are told to run an event knowing that certain safety aspects have not been delt with, and you've run out of time before 'curtain up' to fix it. Stop the show, leave..??

 

In some venues this happens time and again, as a employed proffesional you know what the risks are, does your boss?

 

Does the term 'Reasonably Practicable' include things like:

Bucket to catch water dripping through leaking roof on to both stage (electrics) and auditoria?

[Just Some Bloke]

What if:

Your employer is incompetent and their RA is insufficiently comprehnsive for your work area.

 

Then it's your duty to make them aware of any concerns you might have.

 

First off this would probably be by informal discussion, then if nothing happened you would have to try either formal discussion and/or written communication.

 

If you don't have anything you can prove in court to say you let your bosses know there was a problem, then you yourself are on quite shaky ground, I'm afraid.

 

If you have either a minuted meeting and/or a letter you've written and their reply, then your own position is a lot safer.

 

If you were the judge in those circumstances who would you give the fine to? It's unlikely to be the one who said there was a problem in the first place and wasn't allowed time to fix it.

[Chris Higgs]

The employer has to take steps to ensure his risk assessment is made by someone competent.

The law does not expect the employer to be an expert, but does expect that competent advise is sought in order to carry out his legal duties.

Risk assessments need to be proportionate to the risk, adequate (suitable and sufficient) and up to date.

The employer needs to account for anything that might reasonably be expected to occur that could affect the activity being assessed. So no aircraft crashes need to be considered unless you work at (or very near) an airport.

If something was missed, you might pick it up at the next review anyway; more likely you'll get actual experience of the hazard - in which case, again, you review.

 

Edited for spelling of likely, gets me every time.

[mal421]

Risk Assessments like all things H&S should be subject to regular reviews and amendment . So if something is missed at the initial assessment it may well be picked up during one of the regular reviews . If not you can still demonstrate your commitment to H&S by virtue of the ongoing program of reviews .