Attendance at external events

Many companies arrange external events for their employees for a number of different reasons - to enhance training skills, encourage “team building” or as a means of collective reward etc.

Managing the risks

To help you identify the hazards associated with external events and appropriate ways of controlling them, use our example Risk Assessment - Attendance at External Events. It covers the generic hazards associated with this type of activity and suggests control measures to reduce risks to an acceptable level. However, because such events can take so many different forms you should ensure that your assessment addresses the specific risks associated with the type of event that you are considering for your employees.

Note. If your event is to be run by an external provider, ask them to supply their risk assessments and details of insurance held.

You should ensure that your document only addresses “significant” hazards, i.e. any that could, and more importantly are likely to, cause an accident or injury.

Make your instructions clear

Don’t include activities in your document that simply don’t need to be there. Work to the principle that if there is any chance of your staff being unaware of the safe way of doing something, then you will need to make it clear in your document. Finally, always ensure that any control measures you identify and follow only go so far “as is reasonably practicable”.  

Note. The list of potential hazards is not exhaustive. However, for your risk assessment to be considered suitable and sufficient in the eyes of the law it must accurately reflect the “significant” hazards that could be encountered at an external event.