Overview of Risk Assessment
Risk assessment is simply a careful examination of the anything in your workplace that could cause injury or ill-health to the people that work there or damage to property or equipment owned by the business.
Risk Assessment is the cornerstone of health and safety legislation and is absolutely essential to a safe working environment.
Hazard – Something with the potential to cause harm, e.g. the presence of a dangerous substance, excessive noise, a knife or a piece of electrical equipment.
Hazardous event – takes place when someone or something interacts with a hazard and harm or loss occurs.
Likelihood – is a measure of chance that a hazardous event will occur.
Consequence – is the outcome of the hazardous event in terms of injury or loss.
Risk – is the combination of the likelihood of a hazardous event occurring and the consequences of that event to the person or equipment, risk is normally calculated as likelihood x consequence.
