A fundamental part of managing health and safety successfully is to assess risks. Risk assessment will help to reduce workplace injuries, diseases and property damage by identifying potential causes and enabling something to be done to prevent harm or damage occurring.
Risk assessment is concerned with identifying any activity, process or situation that can cause harm and evaluating what degree of harm could be caused and whether or not it is likely to happen. Health and safety practitioners refer to evaluating the likelihood of a hazard causing harm and the severity of the consequences.
When determining the severity of the consequences regard has to be given of the number of people that are likely to be affected and the type of people that are likely to be affected for example children, pregnant workers, people with disabilities should be given greater protection that able bodied and skilled people.
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Sample Model Risk Assessments:
