Site-specific risks

When you arrive at an unfamiliar site, you’ll often be faced with unexpected hazards that won’t be covered on your generic site risk assessment. If left unmanaged, these could cause accidents leading to serious personal injuries.

What to do?

Although the tasks your staff complete are likely to be very familiar and can be covered in a generic risk assessment, the site on which they’re working can often throw up some unexpected hazards that need to be dealt with. So to record which hazards are present, their associated risks and, most importantly, how you will manage them, e.g. by issuing appropriate personal protective equipment, use our Risk Assessment - Site-Specific Risks.

How to fill it in?

The boxes on the form are largely self-explanatory. The first section includes space to identify the location of the site, your emergency arrangements - including first aid trained staff etc. The second part is designed to record any hazards found.

Note. 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.

Training record

Any members of staff who may be exposed to the hazards identified should be briefed on how to avoid injury. The final part of the document provides space to record who has received the briefing.

Get a signature. Make sure all members of staff enter their names and sign this document. This is your record that you’ve assessed the risks properly, and that they have been briefed accordingly.