Risk Assessment
A hazard is defined as anything which is capable of causing harm which means that we are all surrounded by hazards throughout our personal and working lives. Risk is the likelihood that harm will be caused as a consequence of the hazard. The way that we use hazards can dramatically increase the risk that they pose, and although it would not be realistic to remove all hazards we must assess the risks so that we can minimise their impact.
There are inevitably a number of activities undertaken at the University which are in some way or another duplicated by more than one team. All activities and hazards need to be assessed for risk but it makes sense that where such assessments can be shared then this should be done. A number of generic assessments for common areas of work have been completed and are available so that they can be tweaked for specific areas or activities. This library is available to host all future risk assessments so that further sharing of information can take place.
Risk assessment templates are available for all hazards including:
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General hazards
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Chemical/Biological hazards
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Fire hazards
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Psychosocial hazards
The general template should be used by default for all hazards which do not obviously fall into any other category. All templates use a traffic light system to indicate whether additional controls are required and each assessment is accompanied by a SMART action plan.
