Does an accident, immediately render the corresponding risk assessment covering the activity as NOT being 'suitable and sufficient'? (No matter how good and thoroughly the RA was put together)

One of my customers has a similar issue with gangs working around the country digging holes for streetworks. Gangs are provided with a booklet of copies of a carefully developed generic RA template, and the gang leader is trained to add/delete information to make a specific RA for each digging site. He'll add information about traffic management, weather, barriers and temporary footpaths around works, footpath closures, safe parking of their vehicles and movement of excavators, special consideration for areas near shops, schools etc, the needs for premises access and wheelchair/scooter access etc etc So the safety manager does not need to do all the specific risk assessments; train the experienced operators/supervisors.

You should be training your guys to do a dynamic risk assessment when they come onto a new site. I know the HSE has a downer on dynamic RAs but that is because the term is being abused, by people who don’t want to do any sort of assessment. The correct idea of dynamic RA is that you come onto a new site, have a look and compare the situation to the one described in your generic assessment and the guys are empowered (key word that) to a) decide that the generic covers it and they can continue b) they need extra controls, so they apply them and get on with the job or c) decide that this is way beyond what the generic RA covers and they don’t do the job. A key part of this approach is that they must a) record their decision and b) feedback any modifications into the generic RA. In that way the generic RA will become more detailed and appropriate for the work the guys are doing (ie more suitable and sufficient). It might be a bit laborious at first but it is less hassle that trying to create new RA for each site (often with no real information about the hazards you might come across) but is more useful than the paper exercise that you mentioned.

IMO if you look at the definition of an accident it usually starts something like "an unforeseen event". If that is the case how can anyone possibly prevent the accident if it is "unforeseen"? Take care now, look out for the unforeseen ha ha. (Not Friday yet is it).

No. If your RA said "wear a hard hat" and the operative did not and sustained a head injury, is that the risk assessment at fault? Of course not! When I investigate an accident I always look at the associated Risk Assessments and Safe Systems of Work to "tick off" the control measures. If all control measures have been met but the accident still has occurred, I would consider reviewing it to put further controls into place. Sometimes, no matter how well put together your risk assessment is, there will be things you cannot anticipate and it is only by reviewing these and improving the risk assessment that it gets better. This doesn't make your assessment unsuitable or insufficient. What would make it unsuitable or insufficient would be once you have identified what caused the hazard to occur, if you did nothing about it then I believe it would become this as you would not have recorded the 'significant findings' and you would be aware that there is a possibility this hazard could occur. To make it clear, the accident doesn't automatically make your assessment insufficient or unsuitable but your actions (or lack thereof) might do. It's all situational...

I agree with Mark, Ron etc. and as already stated get your guys to a standard where they can undertake 'on the spot' assessments that add value & follow up their actions by audits etc. undertaken by their supervisors after looking after highways works of all types and sizes for 17 years all we issued to the guys /girls was a single sided sheet of paper with the high risks indicated therein and with a space to add other significant risks present & their solutions that were specific to that site --- these sheets were regularly evaluated against the main primary risk assessments held in the office to see if foreseeable risks had been missed and how the single sheets were being managed -- the system worked well even with HSE investigations, and remember the employees are there to do a days work and are already bombarded with 'other' types of paper so try to keep it simple for them where U can as for your boss; well he/she is correct in that having a good quality paper trail goes along way to help them in a court