Risk Assessment / Health & Safety

[restoman]

A quick question if I may:

We have carried out Risk Assessments and used these to compile a Health & Safety Document for our workers. All workers receive a copy of this document. I now have one worker who has asked to see the actual Risk Assessments. The worker has not indicated that there is anything specific that he wishes to clarify. I can't find anything in H&S Law that says I have to make these documents available.

Input would be much appreciated

Thank you

[Rushjob]

How can an employee safely carry out their assigned role within the company unless they have read and more importantly understood the risk assessment for their role?

It seems to me that the whole idea of risk assessment has flown over your head.

Who carried them out and are they qualified to complete them?

Please don't say that you did but then can't see why the employee should see them.

I can just imagine the aftermath of a works accident....

When the investigator asks the employee if they complied with the risk assessment and they reply,
"I honestly don't know, I asked to see the RA but my boss didn't think it appropriate to let me have sight of it."

[meehaja]

Risk assessments are “read and sign” for all staff in our business. One of the values of this is it allows staff (if they can be bothered) to highlight issues and risks that aren’t captured by the RA or provide controls that we weren’t aware of.

[restoman]

In the circumstances outlined above I can see the arguement for RAs to be made available. In this instance there is no machinery involved, the work involves walking up and down the road. My question was as far as I can tell by reading the legislation I am legally obliged to issue a Health & Safety Policy Statement and not necessarily the RAs used to formulate that statement. In this instance the RAs provide no more info or detail than is already in the Policy Statement I am not against issuing the RAs in principal but in this case to do so would be time consuming from a logistic and practical point of view.

Edited by restoman on Thursday 25th January 17:37

[55palfers]

Always involve employees in the RA process, they often know more about the actual job than managers.

[Rushjob]

restoman said:

In the circumstances outlined above I can see the arguement for RAs to be made available. In this instance there is no machinery involved, the work involves walking up and down the road. My question was as far as I can tell by reading the legislation I am legally obliged to issue a Health & Safety Policy Statement and not necessarily the RAs used to formulate that statement. In this instance the RAs provide no more info or detail than is already in the Policy Statement I am not against issuing the RAs in principal but in this case to do so would be time consuming from a logistic and practical point of view.

Edited by restoman on Thursday 25th January 17:37

So it wouldn't be a problem if one of your employees was hit and seriously injured/killed whilst "walking up and down the road" so no need for them to up to speed.

Are you aware of the scrutiny your company would come under in those circumstances?
You REALLY need to revisit this with some QUALIFIED support and advice

[restoman]

All of the necessary advice is clearly set out in the Health and Safety Policy Document.

However, that is not relevant to my original question.

You are ignoring my original question presumably because you do not know the answer to it yet you find it necessary to be a keyboard warrior.

Why?

Edited by restoman on Thursday 25th January 18:56

Edited by restoman on Thursday 25th January 18:58

[crmcatee]

What issue do you have by letting them see the risk assessment. Is it because you don't have one ?

You say you've used these to generate your H&S document so you must have had them at one stage.

[anonymous-user]

You don't have to share unless it holds information directly identifying the employee.

However, I can't think of a valid reason why you wouldn't want to if you have done the job properly.

[restoman]

crmcatee said:

What issue do you have by letting them see the risk assessment. Is it because you don't have one ?

You say you've used these to generate your H&S document so you must have had them at one stage.

This obviously was not the place to get a straight forward answer to a straight forward question. My mistake.

Edited by restoman on Thursday 25th January 19:25

[restoman]

'desolate', thank you, after 13 posts you are the first to actually answer the question.

Edited by restoman on Thursday 25th January 19:30

[gooner1]

restoman said:

All of the necessary advice is clearly set out in the Health and Safety Policy Document.

However, that is not relevant to my original question.

You are ignoring my original question presumably because you do not know the answer to it yet you find it necessary to be a keyboard warrior.

Why?

Edited by restoman on Thursday 25th January 18:56

Edited by restoman on Thursday 25th January 18:58

You didn't originally ask a question, you made a statement and welcomed any input.
You also say that logistics and time are your main reasons for not showing one particular employee the RA's in question. How much time have you spent looking into H&S law, presumably looking for reasons not to show the RA's, and how long would it have taken to run off a copy of both your H&S rules and the RA for the employee to mull over?

Edited by gooner1 on Thursday 25th January 19:38

[crmcatee]

HSE does say that Risk Assessments should involve your workers in the process - what better way to keep your safety document upto date by letting the workers who are actually doing the job review and provide input to it.

[55palfers]

restoman said:

'desolate', thank you, after 13 posts you are the first to actually answer the question.

Edited by restoman on Thursday 25th January 19:30

....unfortunately desolate is completely wrong. Employees have a right to see relevant RAs.

CMIOSH of 30 years.

[restoman]

55palfers said:

....unfortunately desolate is completely wrong. Employees have a right to see relevant RAs.

CMIOSH of 30 years.

Thank you.
At last a sensible answer from someone who should know what they are talking about.
If the law says that, then that is exactly what will happen.

Edited by restoman on Thursday 25th January 22:25

[anonymous-user]

55palfers said:

....unfortunately desolate is completely wrong. Employees have a right to see relevant RAs.

CMIOSH of 30 years.

Well knock me down with a feather - if that's the case I apologise.
Can you point me in the direction of the relevant legislation?

[restoman]

No problem from my point of view 'desolate' - you took the trouble to try and advise to the best of your knowledge and that is much appreciated.

[anonymous-user]

restoman said:

No problem from my point of view 'desolate' - you took the trouble to try and advise to the best of your knowledge and that is much appreciated.

I always thought it was good practice to share them, but didn't know it was compulsory. Hence the request for the legislation.

Every day is a school day.

[55palfers]

I'm on holiday in Lanzarote at the moment with no access to my library. How grim.

Google HSE management regs for the general duty and the further reading on other RAs such as COSHH, PPE, noise, manual handling, HAVs, Asbestos, DSE, etc.

All of these subsequent RAs would normally be identified in a task specific RA .

As I said earlier it's best practice to jointly develop the RAs with relevant employees.

Heaven forbid you have a serious incident injuring employees and employees make statement to HSE that they have asked to read RA but were denied a chance to read.

Share and get signature to confirm understanding.

[restoman]

55palfers said:

I'm on holiday in Lanzarote at the moment with no access to my library. How grim.

Google HSE management regs for the general duty and the further reading on other RAs such as COSHH, PPE, noise, manual handling, HAVs, Asbestos, DSE, etc.

All of these subsequent RAs would normally be identified in a task specific RA .

As I said earlier it's best practice to jointly develop the RAs with relevant employees.

Heaven forbid you have a serious incident injuring employees and employees make statement to HSE that they have asked to read RA but were denied a chance to read.

Share and get signature to confirm understanding.

Excellent advice - thank you.