Posted By steven n I know its really back to basics but who should carry out a risk assessment safety department or line managers (with assistance)?

Posted By CFT All those affected or likely to be should be involved in the process, and it should be signed off by someone with the competency to fully understand the process/task etc RA'd. In a larger organisation this may mean breaking them down into sections; If RA's are produced for my organisation by others,(suitably competent) then I insist on seeing them and counter signing; most are excellent; and an odd one however is not, and this allows for further immediate changes to be implemented. CFT

Posted By Ron Hunter Or to pose the question slightly differently, who ensures that the R/A is both suitable and sufficient?

Posted By CFT Can anyone tell me why exactly the HSE will investigate a domestic 'probable' H&S related offence and not the LA EHO responsible for safety related areas? Just curious as to why and how this came about as it is a somewhat ambiguous process when you consider other areas of responsibility between the two organisations. CFT

Posted By Ian Wheeler My experience is that yes, you first need someone competent but every company can make its mind up who is best placed to make the assessment. As an H&S bloke, I cannot get to 6 or more sites that my workers start each working day. I delegated the job to the first man on site but made sure that the assessment form was easy to complete and calculate. Mind you, in my business we normally only ever send a small team (2-4) to any individual site. If I were deploying 10-20 men at a time, there would be more of a case for a foreman / H&S bloke or manager to get there ahead of the game, since the level of personal responsibility is greater.