Welcome Guest! The IOSH forums are a free resource to both members and non-members. Login or register to use them

Postings made by forum users are personal opinions. IOSH is not responsible for the content or accuracy of any of the information contained in forum postings. Please carefully consider any advice you receive.

Notification

Icon
Error

Options
Go to last post Go to first unread
Admin  
#1 Posted : 10 September 2009 16:54:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By safety guy I have been asked if it is law that risk assessments must be left on the premises? Can anyone point me in the direction of where in the law it says this? I know risk assessments have to be done and that you must provide employees with the information on the outcome of the assessments. Thanks in advance
Admin  
#2 Posted : 10 September 2009 17:19:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By Tabs Not aware of such a riquirement for general risk assessments (COSHH is different I would argue). You are right that employees should be made aware of the outcomes, and they should have access to the RA's - but nothiing sets down a distance/timeframe/medium as far as I have read. That said - I don't know why you would resist the request.
Admin  
#3 Posted : 11 September 2009 08:47:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By andrew morris Hi, Not as far as I can remember - but there may be something in the management regs ACOP that says they must be available for staff (and inspectors) to read at any time - interpreted to being left on site. I'd echo the earlier comment - these are normally "public" documents, so I would always have them available (they were on display in the staff room at my previous employers).
Admin  
#4 Posted : 11 September 2009 08:49:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By Coshh Assessor There is no law that says where records of risk assessments must be stored. As already said, you do have to communicate the findings of them and obviously having them available on the premises might be part of how you achieve this. Bear in mind a risk assessment is really a process, not a document. The document just records (in more or less detail) the findings of the risk assessment (and you do have to record them if 5 or more employees).
Admin  
#5 Posted : 11 September 2009 09:26:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By David Gault I agree with the other comments that the law does not state where they should be kept. I would add that I did the BSI Lead Auditor course for 18001 a couple of years ago and on that we were told that the risk assessments should be easily accessible but "easily accessible" would mean different things to different companies. It was possible, depending on circumstances, to allow up to 24 hours to locate the risk assessment.
Admin  
#6 Posted : 11 September 2009 23:57:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By Ron Hunter By "left", do you mean perhaps when everyone has gone, i.e. a sale or tranfer of the premises? An astute lawyer would perhaps look for R/A information relevant to Fire, Legionell and Asbestos as part of the sale and transfer? In an employer/employee context then I agree it would be counter-productive to withhold them, although there may be practical difficulties in maintaining paper copies at numerous satellite sites of ALL Risk Assessments. Company websites, intranet, or uncontrolled copies on CD are options?
Admin  
#7 Posted : 12 September 2009 08:21:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By Phil Rose I guess that we are talking about general risk assessments? While there is no law that states that they must be kept in any particular form or format or that they should explicitly be left on the premises, the information arising should be communicated to and available to the people that are exposed to the risks. As some risk assessment formats not only record the risk but also detail the precautions necessary to mitigate the risk then it makes sense to me that any assessment relating to activities at a particular premises should be available at that premises.
Admin  
#8 Posted : 12 September 2009 08:28:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By GaryC40 I recall sometime ago data protection issues of person specific RAs being accessible to the general workforce, for example, a DSE RA detailing specific medical info on a individual. We have a central library where personnel without access to our intranet can access recorded generic and non-person specific RAs. Other than that findings of RAs are discussed at formally minuted safety meetings and through everyday communication. GC
Admin  
#9 Posted : 13 September 2009 00:19:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By Ron Hunter Surely wholly unecessary and most unwise to translate confidential information about individuals onto any Risk Assessment?
Admin  
#10 Posted : 13 September 2009 11:07:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By John Richards Hopefully you will remember that any personal/medical information recorded on a risk assessment will be available, to the person for who the information is relevant, under the data protections act subject-access provisions ? And that any general distribution of that risk assessment to others will have to NOT include that personal information ? There's a very nice template at the end of this: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg163.pdf
Users browsing this topic
Guest
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.