The legal duty to provide risk assessment is with the  employer so the business should be identifying the best person to produce the risk assessment and deciding whether it is ‘suitable and sufficient’.

So criminal culpability  is not an issue as to civil liability, you would probably only get sued if the risk assessment was very negligent.  Consultants’ bread and butter is providing  risk assessments for clients who unable(or too lazy) to provide their, but they will add disclaimers making it clear that the risk assessment is based on what the client told them, so the responsibility remains with the  business. People often copy each others risk assessments and then use in situations which they might be inappropriate and that is why simply sharing a risk assessment is not a good idea.  

I would ask for a copy of their Risk Assessment to see how it dovetails with yours after all whilst they may be availing themselves of your services they are the ones bringing the external unknown risk i.e. the particpants.

Could look at it a different way.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 doesn't require the communication of the risk assessment (to employees) but information about the significant factors that are identified and thence the precautions to be taken.

This is essentially putting some meat on the bones of Section 2(2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 requring the provision of such information etc as is reasonably practicable.

Given that the five parts of Section 2(2) are generally viewed as being illustrative of the general requirements of Section 2(1), similar requirements could be read into the general requirements of Section 3(1) or 3(2) as regards the duty of an employer or self-employed person to those at risk, but not in their employ.

How would a provider of outdoor activities possibly demonstrate compliance with Section 3(1) without providing appropriate guidance on precautions to users, as would be indicated in the findings of a risk assessment.

So, may be the consultant is right (up to a point) - "Don't share the whole risk assessment" - but not right if they think that translates as "Don't warn the users about risks"!!

You can only be held liable for what you control ie what process are yours. The idea that if you create risk assessment you take on the liability is wrong. If you manage a process, then you are liable for any health and safety issues arising from it and you then you must do the risk assessment for your process. So for example if you supply equipment/facilities for your outdoor training you are liable for the equipment (it is in a good state of repair etc) and providing training on its use. What you don’t have  any control over it is how it is being used as you have no authority over  the groups visiting your centre. Their behaviour is the responsivity of the school or youth group and they must provide a risk assessment looking at how they manage their people in this setting.

I think the is legal requirement Chris is alluding to is for schools to inform parents or guardians of the risks to work experience students on placements.

One of the reasons I left Scouting many years ago was the adoption of Risk Assessments

https://www.scouts.org.uk/volunteers/staying-safe-and-safeguarding/risk-assessments/

Originally Posted by: ncann88

If we provide you a copy of our risk assessment for x and you don't spot ssomething we may have missed, you are eequally culpable' 

What a strange statement to make. Like Achrn im not totaly clear about what you are doing - but if you are providing supervision on outdoor activities and something went wronge the 1st thing an inspector would look for is the Risk Assessment. If its lacking then you are liable full stop. Yes a school has to show they have selected a senisble provider - do the The Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations still exist? But for me that's things that are reasonable for them to do - like look at your licence or ask about the training of your instructors. Is this advisor suggeting that if something goes wronge with teh activity then its the schools fault? As an inspector i always looked at why a "specilist" had been choosen but did not expect the people setting them on to be able to assess their RA in minute deatil or why would they emply the specilist?

I work in the Education sector and insist that teaching colleagues ask activity providers to provide information - a teacher booking a canoeing activity (for example) is reliant on the provider. Reluctance to provide information that the teacher can understand means that the activity will be cancelled in our organisation.