Hi, do all risk assessments need to be signed? - in the past we have, by each operative - is still required? have differing opinions.

Thanks, we have always got them signed by each operative, its alway been the case! Some have expressed an opinion that they dont need signing, when signed we know they have read them. Thanks. 

Every where I have worked such documents always include an operator signing sheet.

The $64,000 question no one ever answers is what value can be placed upon the "X" on the paper.

People think it proves the operator has read, understood and agrees to comply with the written content.

All it proves is a mark was made on a piece of paper.

To have the validity anticipated/expected it actually requires a form of legal witness.

Most times the supervisor providing the briefing can't even be bothered to counter sign the operator.

Good luck proving the IP had received sufficient instruction & training!

 If you are asking all employees to read and sign a risk assessment i am assuming that you have trained each and everyone so they actually undertsand what a risk assessment is, why's etc ??.

Employees should be made of the significant risk's which is usually outlined within any specific SSOW, Training etc that would have been generated by the findings and controls of the risk assessment.

Thanks for the above. All operatives have been trained / instructed etc. in activities, certain jobs (re abrasive wheels, ladders, FLTs etc.) they have completed a suitable course, they are supervised and monitored.

It's the findings from the RA that the workers need to know about - that could be a simple as "if you stand where you should, wearing what you should and press these buttons, then everythings fine!" If everyone had to read all the RAs applicable to their role it could take ages - plus factor in mother tongue, literacy, dyslexia, technical jargon and you have a whole bunch of other problems. 

Plus of course, I've read loads of things in my time, how many I can remember at any particular point is very much open to question. So, for me - NO operators don't have to sign RAs 

I am happy to be able to clarify that there is no such requirement prescribed in ISO 45001, and nor was there in its predecessor OHSAS 18001.  Furthermore in both the organisations with ISO/OHSAS certs that I have worked for, we didn't get operators to sign risk assessments and none of the external auditors seemed at all concerned by this or ever suggested that it would be an improvement to do so.

I think this supposed requirement is more likely to originate in the hope that such a signature would be useful in defending legal action.

Some organisations have made a cult of signatures; they seem to think that something written in ink(rather than blood!) on a piece of paper will somehow protect the business if it all goes wrong. Of course it doesn’t. From the purely legal point of view an employer cannot transfer responsibility  to his employees. Employees also get wound up about being made to sign documents which seem to drop the onus on them. Nevertheless, if you are working to some sort of quality system signatures(including electronic signatures)  have a role to play as long as people understand exactly what they mean. If you are drafting any sort of document, be it a risk assessment or  method system or  policy it should be clear who the author is and when it was created. The signature means(or should mean) that the author has produced the document to the best of their abilities and that it is authorised for use in that organisation. When the work  to assigned to individuals it  makes sense for them to sign it indicating that they have read and understood it and that they are capable of carrying this procedure according to the document. As Bryan said the signed document by itself is worthless unless it is back up by training and evidence of competence. There  should also be a mechanism for which enables the person not the sign the document either because they feel themselves not to competent or they feel the document is wrong and needs a review/amendment. I don’t think many organisations adopt this approach: they simple want a written signature on piece of paper which is totally worthless

I have just had another look at Craig’s comment especially the bit about “how easy would it be to say "that signature wasn’t mine", especially if its digital”.  it  looks like people misunderstand what a “digital signature” is . In many organisations a digital signature consists of  a scanned image of a written signature which can be appended to a word document or a pdf file. Such a thing is of course worthless as anybody can take a scanned image  and stick it where they like. A proper digital signature is something that is appended to an electronic document and can only appended by the signee. For example we use a document control system. When I create a new document, I  have  to log onto the system with my password and authorise the document. Only I can do that, and it is a permanent record that I have authorised the document.  That is an electronic signature not the squiggle I add to some documents at the insistence of some office muppet.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electronic-signatures

guidance from BEIS regarding S.I. 2016 No. 696 for those wanting a bit of CPD study

If we are looking at signatures from the legal point of view (which is somewhat off the original topic but that’s what this forum does!) the courts tend to treat a signature at face value; so if someone presents a piece of paper with signature on it as evidence in court it is accepted as valid unless someone can prove(on the balance of probabilities)  it’s not. If someone was to deny a signature was theirs’s in court they would get a rough time during cross examination, unless they could provide evidence that it was forged. For example if a signature was used to prove that they had attended a particular training activity and they were able to show that they were away on leave on that day, then yes that would demonstrate that the signature could have been forged  but simply saying I did not sign is not enough.