HI all, I am not overly new to risk assessments and various other H&S activities, however for the first time I have been asked to provide a breakdown of all my activities related to health and safety to include time on project work and I have never been asked to do this, but now I am being asked to account for my hours on various H&S activities at work such as risk assessments, COSHH risk assessments, Policies, Procedures, Work instructions, various H&S and Fire objective projects and my time spent on the shop floor/office dealing with contractors and taking temperatures etc, to mention a couple of things. I have no idea how to do this as I have never done it before and its now making me question if I should be doing them quicker, i'm dyslexic so documentation and admin is my nemisis as I always try to get it as spot on as possible (maybe spoending more time on it than I should making sure its right) this is now shaking my confidence. How do I determin how long all of the aforementioned should take let alone how best to document and present it, when I google i just get swathes of information on how to do the task not how long it should take or how to quantify it, Can anyone help please?

It takes as long as it takes.

If those who analyse the timesheets have a concern about the amount of time it is taking, they will raise it.  Until then, you don't need to justify it.

I do timesheets as a matter of course for both project and non-project work.  I've never been challenged about the amount of time I book to anything.  Once I was challenged about which code I'd booked to (project or non-project) and occasionally I challenge the booking code (never the times) on timesheets that I approve.

The project bookings have always been used as far as I know to track the costs of the current project and to budget for the next one.

There isn't necessarily anything sinister in this.

I've just done a major exercise revamping our risk assessments with help from our Training Team Leader.  Some of them took a whole afternoon to thrash out and others took a mere 30mins.  It depends on the complexity of the task and the type of hazards present so no one can put a standard time on them there are too many variables. 

I once had a boss who always found me on a break.  If ever he came looking for me I was at the vending machine - he was just one of those people.  I got a very bad performance review from him basically saying that I didn't ever seen to be doing any work.  So I kept a log.  I drew a hard back note book from stationery and ruled it off into Date, Time Activity Start, Time Activity End and Nature of Activity.  Then I just filled it each day, if I took or made a phone call it went in my book, if I went over to the production office for something it went in the book, everything I did including breaks went in the book.  I presented him with two completely full hard backed books at my next review and funnily enough he told me I wasn't taking enough breaks!!

Are you sure that they really want to know exactly how long you spend on each risk assessment? It is fairly normal to have to account for your time against various budgets allocated to specific projects and departments; which is just a way of dividing internal costs.

I would not give a break down of time spent on each assessment. Just take each day and allocate how much time was spent on risk assessments, COSHH, policies etc.

You need to understand why you are being asked the question.

To me it sounds like someone wants to "measure" performance through a spreadsheet which is not practicable or derive justification to outsource activity.

By example if you are involved in a Packaging Waste Return there is little time expended through most of the year and then a flurry of activity in Q1 at submission time.

Similarly OHSAS 18001 / ISO 45001 minimal maintenance throughout the year then two or three days concentrated activity at each audit.