Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

13.9.2 Risk 
assessment
This is the process of identifying and carefully examining 
the dangerous substances present or likely to be present 
in the workplace, the work activities involving them and 
how they might fail and cause fi re, explosion and similar 
events that could harm employees and the public. The 
purpose of a risk assessment is to enable the employer 
to decide what needs to be done to eliminate or reduce 
the safety risks from dangerous substances as far as 
is reasonably practicable. It should take account of the 
following:
➤
what hazardous properties the substance has
➤
the way they are used and stored
➤
the possibility of hazardous explosive atmospheres 
occurring
➤
any potential ignition sources.
Regardless of the quantity of dangerous substance 
present, the employer must carry out a risk assessment. 
This will enable them to decide whether existing meas-
ures are suffi cient or whether they need to make any 
additional controls or precautions. Non-routine activ-
ities need to be assessed as well as the normal activ-
ities within the workplace. For example, in maintenance 
work, there is often a higher potential for fi re and explo-
sion incidents to occur.
Unless the employer has already carried out a 
detailed assessment under the Management Regulations, 
there must be an assessment of the risks from fi re, 

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Fire hazards and control
213
explosion and other events arising from dangerous 
substances, including addressing requirements specifi ed 
by DSEAR.
Employers are required to ensure that the safety risks 
from dangerous substances are eliminated or, whether 
this is not reasonably practicable, to take measures to 
control risks 
and
to reduce the harmful effects of any fi re, 
explosion or similar events, so far as is reasonably practic-
able (i.e. mitigation).