Anybody can do a risk assessment. You need to be competent to do them to guarantee that the risk assessment is suitable and sufficient (which is required by legislation).
You need to be aware of and understand legal requirements and best practices, as well as have the appropriate skills and experience.
It’s important that you know your own limitations and understand that the risk assessment should be appropriate to the level of risk.
For this reason, sometimes you would need internal or external help or advice to complete your risk assessments.
View more information on competent advice
The risk assessment is considered suitable and sufficient if
- it identifies the significant risks related to the work activity
- it identifies and prioritises the measures that need to be taken to comply with legislation
- it’s appropriate to the nature of the work
- it remains valid for a reasonable period of time.
You can complete our virtual learning module ‘Sensible Risk Assessment’ for free. It should take around 45 minutes to complete and it explains the risk assessment process.
Take the Sensible Risk Assessment course
We have set up a ‘Sensible risk assessment’ training resource which ‘approved trainers’ can use to train their own staff.
Become an 'approved trainer'