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The Principle of Risk Assessment

Health and safety law

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places a general duty on employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all their employees. This duty has been reinforced by more recent legislation which places a much more explicit duty on employers to assess and remove risks in their workplace.

 The European Framework Directive and the five sibling directives which were adopted at the same time were implemented in the UK at the beginning of 1993 as the set of regulations commonly known as the "six-pack". These were:

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992

The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992

 All these regulations are relevant to the prevention of RSI and employers must comply with their requirements. The key lies in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations. As their title suggests, health and safety must be managed and health and safety risks must be managed out of the workplace. Briefly, the regulations require employers to:

• make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees, identifying the measures needed to minimise them (Regulation 3)
• make health and safety arrangements for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of preventive and protective measures (Regulation 4)
• provide health surveillance where appropriate (Regulation 5)
• appoint competent person(s) to assist them in complying with their duties (Regulation 6)
• establish procedures for dealing with serious and imminent danger (Regulation 7)
• provide comprehensible and relevant information to employees (Regulation 8)
• provide adequate health and safety training to employees on recruitment and on exposure to new or increased risks because of a change in work responsibilities or the introduction of new equipment, new technology or new systems of work (Regulation 11)

The suitable and sufficient risk assessment is the cornerstone and it is essential that employers get that right as everything else flows from it.

A summary of the relevant requirements of the other five sets of regulations is given later.

The principle of risk assessment

Risk assessment is the process of determining what hazards exist in the workplace and the risk or likelihood that those hazards will cause harm to people. It is part of a systematic approach to health and safety. It is a duty which is placed on employers but workers and their representatives should be consulted on how it is carried out and their knowledge of the job incorporated into the assessments. They should also be provided with the results. To be suitable and sufficient risk assessments must look at all aspects of the work activity, address what actually happens during the work activity, take into account all those who could be affected, look at work organisation and so on. The purpose of the risk assessment is to enable the employer to identify and prioritise the preventive and control measures needed.

RSI is a serious health and safety hazard to which employers must apply the principles of risk assessment like any other. This means they must take a systematic, step by step approach to:

• identify the hazard
• assess the risk
• implement measures to prevent or control the risk
• adapt the work to the individual concerned
• evaluate the effectiveness of the measures taken
• review the assessment

Health and safety law lays down the minimum standards that employers must achieve, not the maximum ones. It is vitiated by poor enforcement and in any case, there are few absolute requirements: there are usually some qualifying clauses that employers can rely on. The best way to ensure compliance with the law, and to improve upon the minimum legal requirements, is for workers to establish their own strong organisations.

Key requirements of remaining six-pack regulations

Manual Handling Operations Regulations

Regulation 4 of these regulations requires employers to:

• avoid the need for employees to undertake any manual handling operations at work which involve a risk of their being injured
• where manual handling cannot be avoided:
• make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the manual handling task to be undertaken
• take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of injury to employees

In the context of the regulations manual handling means any transporting or supporting of a load, including lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving it, by hand or bodily force. Injury means injury to any part of the body and not just the back.

The employer has to assess the task involved, the load itself, the environment in which the task is being carried out and the capabilities of the person concerned.

Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations

Under these regulations employers must:

• make a suitable and sufficient analysis of workstations and assess the health and safety risks (Reg 2)
• reduce the risks identified (Reg 2)
• ensure that workstations meet standards laid down (Reg 3)
• plan activities so that DSE work is interrupted by breaks or changes in activity which reduce the DSE workload (Reg 4)
• provide employees with an eye and eyesight test and corrective glasses (Reg 5)
• provide health and safety training (Reg 6)
• provide health and safety information (Reg 7)

The risks to health which employers must assess are described as musculoskeletal and postural problems, visual problems, fatigue and mental stress.

Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations

Regulation 5 of these regulations is the most relevant, Under it employers must:

• ensure that work equipment is suitable for the purpose for which it is to be used
• in selecting work equipment, have regard to the risks to health and safety
• ensure that work equipment is used only for operations and conditions for which it is suitable

Regulations 8 and 9 require employers to provide information, instruction and training to employees about how to use equipment safely.

Guidance to the regulations emphasises that the risk assessments made under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations will help employers select suitable work equipment.

Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations

These regulations apply to all aspects of the work environment and employers have duties to provide

• effective ventilation (Reg 6)
• a reasonable temperature (Reg 7)
• suitable and sufficient lighting (Reg 8)
• sufficient space (Reg 10)
• workstations and seating suitable for the person using them and for the work being done (Reg 11)
• suitable and sufficient rest facilities (Reg 25)

Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations

These regulations cover the provision of PPE to employees. Under Regulation 4 employers must provide suitable PPE where health and safety risks cannot be controlled adequately by other means. PPE will not be suitable unless

• it is appropriate to the risks involved
• it takes account of ergonomic requirements and the health of the individual
• it fits the wearer correctly
• it prevents the risk without increasing the overall risk

Wearing PPE can affect a person’s ability to carry out certain tasks so it is relevant when RSI risks are being considered.