Introduction to Fire Safety Management

5.3
Risk assessment and the law
The HSWA requires employers to understand ‘the risks 
inherent with their work’ to ensure that they keep their 
employees and others who may be affected by their 
work activities safe, so far as is reasonably practicable.
The RRFSO and the MHSW Regulations enhance 
and indeed make more specifi c the requirements and 
duties placed upon ‘responsible persons’ and/or employ-
ers for risk assessment.
In relation to fi re, the responsible person, in addition 
to other duties, must make a suitable and suffi cient 
assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are 
exposed in order to identify the general fi re precautions 
that are required to comply with the requirements and 
prohibitions imposed by the Order.
The Order also identifi es requirements relating to 
assessing the risks arising from the presence of danger-
ous substances (see Chapter 14) and risks in relation to 
young persons.
Under the MHSW Regulations every employer has 
an ‘absolute’ legal duty to ‘make a suitable and suffi cient 
assessment of the risks’ to the health and safety of:
➤
His employees to which they are exposed while they 
are at work
➤
To persons not in his employment, arising out of or 
in connection with his activities.
The requirement to conduct suitable and suffi cient risk 
assessments placed upon employers is extended to 
self-employed persons, who have an absolute legal duty 
to assess the risks to their own health and other persons 
who may be affected by their work activities.
The MHSW ACoP indicates that, in practice, the 
term ‘suitable and suffi cient’ requires employers, the 
self-employed and responsible persons to:
➤
Identify the risks arising or connected with their 
work clearly differentiating between the signifi cant 
risks and the insignifi cant risks (trivial)
➤
Prioritise the necessary control measures to comply 
with the law
➤
Take reasonable steps to assist themselves in iden-
tifying risks, including those that they could reason-
ably be expected to know or foresee
➤
Ensure the assessment is appropriate to the nature 
of their work
➤
Identify a period of time for which the assessment is 
likely to remain valid.
Figure 5.3
The responsible person and/or the employers 
must conduct an assessment of the risks in the workplace
The HSE provide guidance for employers and 
the self-employed on how to conduct risk 
assessment in which they identify the follow-
ing fi ve key steps to risk assessment:
1.
Identify the hazards associated with a 
work activity
2. Identify persons who may be at risk
3.
Evaluate the risks and existing control 
measures
4. Record the fi ndings
5. Review when necessary.
While the MHSW Regulations are the umbrella under 
which risk assessments are required by law, many other 
pieces of legislation also require the completion of risk 
assessments. Detailed below is a list of such regulations.
➤
The Noise at Work Regulations 2005
➤
Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992*

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