General Risk Assessment

Build the assessment below, row by row. Each row scores itself on the standard 5×5 matrix, flags what needs acting first, and prints as a signed, dated record you can file. No account, no software, nothing leaves your browser.

How to use the tool

1. Start at the workplace, not the desk — walk the route the workers walk and list what can cause harm: the machinery, the chemicals, the electricity, the working pattern, the people
2. For each hazard, name who might be harmed — employees, contractors, visitors, the disabled, the lone worker — because the who changes the control you select
3. Score likelihood and consequence on the anchored 5×5 scale; the tool calculates the score and the band, so two assessors score the same hazard the same way
4. Write the controls in hierarchy order — elimination first, PPE last — and give every high or very high line an owner and a date
5. Set the review date, print or save as PDF, sign it, and brief the team on the significant findings before they start the work

Worked example

A workshop risk assessment runs to 12–20 lines in practice: the press (caught-in, 4×5=20, guard plus two-hand control), the compressed-air line (struck-by, 2×3=6), the casting manual handling (3×3=9, team lift plus hoist), the floor by the welding bay (slip on scale, 2×2=4), and so on. The point of the worked assessment is the order of the action plan: the 20s and 15s get an owner and a date this week, the 9s get a date this month, and the 4s go on the annual review. That ordering is what makes a risk assessment a working document instead of a drawer document.

Standard & legal context

In the UK the duty sits in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 — a suitable and sufficient assessment, with particular care for five groups: new or inexperienced workers, the disabled, young workers, expectant and new mothers, and the pregnant. In the US, OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120(h) requires hazard identification for the HAZWOPER universe, and the general duty clause covers the rest. ISO 45001:2018 clause 6.1.2 formalises the whole method as hazard identification. The five steps below are the HSE (UK) method, and they work for every framework — change the vocabulary, not the order.

Common mistakes

1. Assessing from memory instead of walking the workplace — the desk-built assessment misses the hazard standing on the floor
2. Scoring everything 2×2 to keep the register quiet — auditors and investigators both read the matrix, and a wall of 4s reads as a confession
3. Listing controls without an owner and a date — an unowned control is a wish, not a control
4. Assessing once and never reviewing — the method requires review after any incident, any change to the work, and at the set interval