Risk assessment - ground clearance

Ground clearance activities can present risks to staff which, left unmanaged, could cause accidents and potentially put you on the wrong side of the law.

Managing the risks

To ensure this doesn’t happen, complete a risk assessment for ground clearance activities which identifies all “significant” hazards and appropriate “reasonable” ways of reducing risks to an acceptable level.

To help you identify the hazards associated with ground clearance activities, i.e. the safe use of machinery, manual handling etc., and the appropriate ways of controlling them, use our example Risk Assessment - Ground Clearance. It covers the generic hazards associated with this type of activity and suggests control measures to reduce risks to an acceptable level.

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 are decided upon the principle of “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 found while carrying out ground clearance.