Posted By S Mack We recently has a non conformance for not having a generic Risk Assessment for employees on company business whether that be hire cars or plane travel etc. I've got a bit of a block. Please does anyone have this type of RA/ideas or a website they can direct me too. Thanks, S Mack

Posted By Rob T Hi, If you're talking about high risk environments I have some info and draft RA templates you can use. Please click on my name to e-mail me. Cheers Rob

Posted By Is Kismet Merv - are you saying you carry out a risk assessment every time you visit a hotel?

Posted By Rob T Hi Is, depending on the level of risk in the country you are going to it is not only possible but absolutely necessary to do a risk assessment of all potentially SERIOUS hazards. I tend to allow a standard awareness list for countries similar to the UK (i.e. EU, Nato, Anzac), but that awareness list in itself is a risk assessment of sorts. As the risk increases, say from Albania for instance and then all the way through up to Chechnya (as probably the most dangerous), then more specifics must be completed by individual risk assessment. The most quoted legal case (although it was eventually settled out of court) was the Granger Telecom engineers in Chechnya when they were beheaded. The main stay of the families claim was that the men had not been given sufficient information or training in relation to the hazards there. That is what won the case (before a judge needed to make the decision!) and resulted in a huge payout to the claimants. So in a nutshell, have a standard list of hazards and what to look out for in similar territories to the UK but check to see (as a rule of thumb) the level of risk that the Foreign Office place on the country concerned and adjust your RA accordingly (inclusively upward). Oh and yes you can do a reasonable assessment of terrorist activity (looking back at your comments on a previous thread re Turkey) if you have the experience. Have a look at November's Safety and Health Practioner when it gets out - there will be an article concerning travel in that. I hope this helps. Cheers Rob

Posted By Merv Newman Is, yes. I used to have a wallet-card on hotel safety. Don't have it any more but it's habitual : whenever I get to an hotel I dump my bags and check out the emergency exit. Do I go left or right out of my room ? My car keys, wallet and passport stay in my trouser pockets. Trousers are hung over the back of the chair next to my bed. With the shoes close by. No-way am I going out onto the car park barefooted in me Y-fronts. I have experienced one hotel fire in my life. I want to be better prepared for the next one. I've done two nights this week, have four next week and at least two the following week. It's going to catch up with me again sometime or other. Be prepared. Be aware. Be alive in the morning. Cheers Merv

Posted By Is Kismet Tell me guys, is it a written assessment you carry out for the hotel, and apart from personal safety do you cover food hygiene and the environmental issues? If you do the environmental assessment do you take into account the waste you generate and the affect it will have locally? Also I suppose you would look at the chances of flooding and other emergencies - so do you write out an action plan covering those aspects?

Posted By Is Kismet I can go along with your scenario Rob, but I can see you recognise my point with (and about) some of the other (outlandish!) responses. The term 'risk assessment' is used far too freely, and in many cases seems to too readily replace the phrase 'common sense', especially on this forum. So lets talk about Antalya which as you know is in Turkey. There had not been a previous terrorist attack there (well not publicised anyway), the Kurdish people (or rather the PKK) are not generally living or active in that area, the actual area the explosion went off in was not generally an area to be avoided - so how would your risk assessment have dealt with that? My intuitive feeling (guided by a number of years in various parts of the world) is that any attempt to RA a country is aiming for immediate failure. Take London for example, you would need numerous sources of reliable information to ensure you avoided certain areas - but that also depends on your background, ethnic origins, age, sex and a whole host of other considerations.

Posted By Is Kismet You've backtracked Merv, from doing a full (implied) risk assessment you now just have a quick look around. It's difficult to have a discussion if the rules keep changing. ;-) (-; ;-)

Posted By Jeffrey Watt Is I've never done one myself but when I worked for a global company the corporate EHS admin bods would ring up the food enforcement authorities where our conferences would be and check if any of the hotels we would use had problems. Bitter experience because a number of folks contracted food poisoning all together from the same hotel resulting in key staff being absent from the business. Jeff

Posted By edwin If someone is travelling in this country or abroad then some planning will have gone into it (you could call this a risk assessment if you want). So if someone was travelling abroad I would consider, for example: Their fitness to travel - medical conditions; current medication; vacinations; etc; The country they are travelling to - is it a normal tourist destination; has the Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued any advice; is it a country they've visited before; Where they are staying - is it somewhere they have stayed before; is it a reputable hotel chain; is it in a 'safe area'; Are they going to travel within the country - hire car, public transport, by air (some internal airlines tend to have a poor safety record and would best be avoided); What are they going to do if they become ill or have a serious accident - have you got the resources to repatriate them; And of course the list can go on ............. and on... As we all know, there is always a risk. So the bombings in Turkey I wouldn't have identified as a significant risk, but we send people to places in Africa which aren't normal tourist areas so I would judge the risk of 'a bit of bother' as being more significant.

Posted By Merv Newman Is, sorry if you think I have backtracked. I haven't really. It is just that the hotel RA is so habitual and automatic that I just don't think about it very much. It just gets done. I was taught travel safety by a very wise but slightly peculiar safety consultant(aren't we all) Every year we had an annual european safety meeting and he insisted that we checked out the emergency exit routes. (In the Golden Tulip hotel, S'Hertogenbosch, Holland, the emergency exits lead down into a central courtyard and out through the ladies toilets) Way out in the Sahara desert I am always pleased to go from the airport to the site in an armed convoy (takes three days for 1200 Km) and to see armed soldiers on the gates. Have once or twice had dinner with the chief of the rebels and the military governor of the region. (they were both born in the village and were childhood friends) And I am still very pleased to have an army escort for the few miles from the hotel to the mine. Ex-rebel chief is now, I think, minister for tourisme. (is that an English word ?) The overall threat-level in an English B&B could be higher than at a uranium mine in Niger. But you HAVE to do the RA. Mind you, hygiene standards are quite variable. Even in England. Be prepared, Be aware, Be alive in the morning. Merv

Posted By Eric Beach That's the last time I spend a night in an English B&B then! "Be prepared, be aware, be alive in the morning" - how will I ever dare to sleep again?!?!?

Posted By Gilles27 After self imposed exile from the forum, I have returned to the fray... Have to query you Merv. Is it the Legionnaires in the desert or the legionaires you share the shower with that cause the most worries? I can't believe nobody picked this one up ;)