Assessing Risks – Step 4 – Record your findings

Now that you have assessed all the risks, you’ll need to record your findings. This is not only good practice, it may be the law – written risk assessments are a legal requirement in the UK if you employ five or more people.

It doesn’t matter what form you use to record your findings – it could be a risk assessment form similar to this example, click here to view/download.  For example: the hazard, the likelihood and consequence of the hazardous event, the risk level and control measures.

Things to include:

• Details of the person carrying out the risk assessment
• The date and time of the assessment
• Details of the location, equipment and activity they’re assessing
• The hazards they’ve identified, together with the risk level
• Existing control measures and how well they work
• Additional control measures and how well they work
• Additional control measures and the residual risk
• The date for review of the assessment

You should always share the findings with your workers so that they are fully aware of the hazards and risks related to their tasks and can take appropriate control steps, as highlighted by the risk assessment, to keep themselves and others around them safe.