Rank: Forum user 
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Hi Colleagues,
A friend has asked me to conduct a risk assessment for him, he is opening a small business and feds a risk assessment performed. I have the diploma occupational health and safety level 3, and feel confident in doing the risk assessment for his new business as it is a field i am familiar with.
My question is: Would you advice on getting indemnity insurance just incase the worst happens? and where can i scorce this from?
better to be safe then sorry :)
Thank You
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Rank: Forum user
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Do the favour - just don't put your name on it. After all, the responsibility to manage that R/A will rest with your friend thereafter, he can put his name to it should he wish.
In any event there is no strict legal or ACoP requirement to put anyone's name to a R/A.
Insurance dilemma solved?
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Rank: Forum user
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I hope your friend was considering paying you for the cost of your insurance for doing the favour !! Have you seen the premiums for liability and professional indemnity etc. ?
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Rank: Forum user
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Thanks for the advice :)
i do have one more question if i may, I would be grateful. I have been asked a lot by different people if i could do risk assessments for them. if i wanted to start charging for risk assessments as a bit of a sideline business, should i get indemnity insurance or just follow your previous advice?
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Rank: Forum user
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alan_uk wrote:I hope your friend was considering paying you for the cost of your insurance for doing the favour !! Have you seen the premiums for liability and professional indemnity etc. ?
How much should i change for an assessment?
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Rank: Super forum user
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Terry
Could I suggest you "help" these people do their own risk assessments. They will probably have more meaning than handing them something you have produced for them. Apologies if I have misunderstood your intentions.
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Rank: Forum user
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Brian Hagyard wrote:Terry
Could I suggest you "help" these people do their own risk assessments. They will probably have more meaning than handing them something you have produced for them. Apologies if I have misunderstood your intentions.
My intention was always to do the risk assessment with them, but i wanted to look into charging for my advice and assistance, Is it worth getting indemnity insurance or not?
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Rank: Super forum user 
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PI insurance is a priority if you are offering advice/guidance on H&S.
Why not charge an hourly rate as there will be some quick RAs and others that take lots of time i.e. researching a subject.
Regarding risk assessing and not signing, it will still be your work so the signature is not relevant.
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Rank: Forum user
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Firesafety101 wrote:PI insurance is a priority if you are offering advice/guidance on H&S.
Why not charge an hourly rate as there will be some quick RAs and others that take lots of time i.e. researching a subject.
Regarding risk assessing and not signing, it will still be your work so the signature is not relevant.
Thanks for the advice, i will look in PI insurance.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Terry - shop around, if you pm me I will give you my insurers details, they are cheaper online. Let me have you e addy.
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Rank: Super forum user
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I would suggest the cost of the PI insurance together with the additional six years of run off insurance is likely to far exceed the original fee.
You could limit the life of the risk assessments within your terms and conditions; however this would involve legal costs drafting these, which again would exceed the original fee.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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quote=ron hunter]Do the favour - just don't put your name on it. After all, the responsibility to manage that R/A will rest with your friend thereafter, he can put his name to it should he wish.
In any event there is no strict legal or ACoP requirement to put anyone's name to a R/A.
Insurance dilemma solved?
Don't put your name on a document to disassociate yourself from it, and deny authorship with a view to avoiding liability if things go wrong? I think that is quite deceitful, since the first intention is to avoid any consequential liability for your own work.
If it were to go wrong - let's hope not - then persisting with such a deceitful stance may well be considered fraudulent in law.
Do take care not to lie and cheat your way through your work.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Ian, my premise is that any Risk Assessment is necessarily a team effort, with no single author or person responsible.
Your counter-argument could equally suggest deceit (or at least conceit!) that the whole assessment is down to any one person (rarely the case).
The main thrust of my post of course was to suggest a pragmatic approach which would allow the poster to help out his friend on a one-off basis. In my experience, this is a fairly common and informal practice for many small local employers.
I can equally understand and respect your p.o.v. though. I note the poster is an IOSH member, and bound by that membership Code.
I do think we often place too much emphasis on the risk assessment document - it is by no means the be-all and end-all of the whole safe system of work. The big banana skin with Risk Assessment of course is to fail to identify a hazard.
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