When did you last review your risk assessments?  Whether that’s your general risk assessments, Fire, COSHH, DSEAR, Noise etc.,  all of these assessments need to be kept up to date and routinely monitored.

We come across many businesses who have got to a point where they have assessments and then have filed and forgotten about them.  They probably think the job is done but unfortunately that is usually only the starting point of compliance because things in most businesses tend to change on a rather regular basis.

When changes occur these are likely to impact upon the risk assessments and therefore need to be taken into consideration. Whether that’s plant, equipment, process or people changes these will all have a potential impact.  Unfortunately, risk assessment is like painting the Forth Bridge in that the task is never completed; rather it’s just work in progress.