Health and Safety Risk Assessment Questions

Overview

Health and safety risk assessments involve a thorough examination of the work environment to ensure that there are no health or safety workplace hazards and risks that may cause harm to employees, visitors, or to members of the public.

During the process, there may be certain health and safety risk assessment questions that employers may be faced with, and these will be addressed in the sections below.

How are risks assessed?

Risks must be identified and reviewed in a systematic manner so that things, activities, situations, and other components that may cause harm to either property or people can be controlled effectively.

One of the ways to ensure that all risks are evaluated is to use a risk assessment form. This procedure, however, must be carried out by a competent person who has the required qualification, knowledge, skills, and experience in carrying out risk assessments.

What does the procedure for identifying risks involve?

There is no set way to assess risks and there are many risk assessment tools and different techniques that can be used. It will depend on the organisation and their unique situation. Despite this, there are a few basic steps that can be followed:

Identify the hazards along with their potential to cause harm by compiling an inventory of hazards.
Rank the hazards according to priority.
Determine the hazard elimination along with risk control measures.
Eliminate the hazard or implement risk control measures to reduce, minimise, or mitigate the risks.
Measure the effectiveness of the risk control measures.
Make the changes to improve consistently and continuously, and monitor improvements.

Why must findings be recorded?

It is crucial for significant findings to be recorded and that a written and/or electronic copy of the risk assessment be kept. Risk assessments form part of the first documents and evidence which is requested by inspectors.

In having a record of the risk assessment and the control measures, employers can provide proof that they are compliant with the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993, in providing a healthy and safe work environment.

Risk Assessment review

A risk assessment is not a once-off exercise but a working document and process. The risk assessment must be reviewed regularly to ensure that it is still valid. Apart from reviewing it once a year, it must also be reviewed when there are significant changes to any of the following:

Equipment
Materials
People
Premises
Processes

It is also crucial to ensure that the risk assessment is reviewed after an accident, incident, or a near miss to prevent them from happening again and to ensure that the risk control measures that are in place are adequate.

How does SafetyWallet support its subscribers?

SafetyWallet, in partnership with MAKROSAFE and OHS Online, ensures that subscribers can obtain the highest level of compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act, all other Regulations, and more.

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Through the assistance and support in the health and safety programme of the subscriber, SafetyWallet helps subscribers with the health and safety risk assessments that must be conducted to ensure that subscribers are compliant in providing a healthy and safe working environment.

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Keeping your workplace legally Health and Safety Compliant may seem like a daunting task. At MAKROSAFE, we have an experienced team of OHS experts available to assist in keeping your company Health and Safety Compliant according to South African Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 and Regulations.

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