Plumbing and heating

If your staff are carrying out basic plumbing and heating work, use this sample risk assessment to identify and manage the significant risks associated with the tasks involved.

Managing the risks

To help you identify the hazards and appropriate ways of controlling them, use our example Risk Assessment - Plumbing and Heating document. It covers the generic hazards found with most tasks completed by a plumber and suggests control measures to reduce risks to an acceptable level. 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

There is no point putting activities on the 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 carrying out a task, then you will need to make it clear on your document. Finally, always ensure any control measures you identify and follow only go so far “as is reasonably practicable”. Note. The list of potential hazards is not exhaustive, as you know your workplace better than we do. For your risk assessment to be considered suitable and sufficient in the eyes of the law it must accurately reflect the “significant” hazards found with carrying out plumbing and heating work.