Safe use of circular saws

Use our template risk assessment to ensure safety when circular saws are in use.

Dangerous equipment

To make the assessment process as simple as possible, we’ve created a template Risk Assessment - Safe Use of Circular Saws. We’ve filled in much of the detail, meaning it can be quickly tailored to your workplace.

What’s included?

On the first page of our document there’s space for you to record the location, name of the assessor, document’s issue number, and the names of those who have received a copy, e.g. supervisory staff and workers.

On page two is a matrix which is to be used when working out a risk rating later in the assessment. To do so you will need to consider the likelihood of someone being harmed and the level of severity, e.g. if the likelihood is 2 and the severity is 4, then the overall risk rating is eight, at the lower end of the “medium risk” scale. Assigning a risk rating both before and after risk control measures are applied helps you to understand whether the proposed measures will reduce the risk sufficiently. It also helps when prioritising the actions to take.

The second page also contains details of personal protective equipment. We’ve suggested that those using a circular saw would usually require safety footwear, plus eye, respiratory and hearing protection. On construction sites a high visibility vest and hard hat might be required. However, loose clothing must not be worn due to a risk of entanglement.

The document then goes on to cover the hazards associated with the use the equipment and suggests control measures to reduce risks to an acceptable level. This is set out in a table alongside our estimated risk ratings.

Review and change the contents to fit your own workplace and the risk control measures which you require staff to implement.