This document provides general guidance to assist let holders as they carry out a risk assessment to support a safe environment for the participants attending.
As per the terms and conditions of room hire, the let holder is responsible for undertaking a full risk assessment of their let, to review and update it regularly and to ensure that all risks are mitigated or managed. The let holder knows their activities and attendees best so it must be them who completes this process. This is not a task that Duncan Place staff can do for let holders.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recommends five steps to risk assessments:
- Step 1 – Identify the Hazards
- Step 2 – Decide who might be harmed and how
- Step 3 – Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions
- Step 4 – Record your findings and implement
- Step 5 – Review your risk assessment
As the Let holder is responsible for the safety of everyone who is involved, they will need to retain a copy of the risk assessment and share the information with those affected, regarding the nature of the risk and the control measures to be implemented, especially other staff involved with planning and delivering the event.
Useful links:
Step 1 – Identify the Hazards
Visit www.hse.gov.uk for practical guidance on where hazards happen and how to control them.
Have a walk through the site, or examine your activities and look afresh at what could cause harm – ignore the trivia and concentrate on significant hazards that may cause serious harm, or affect several people, such as fire or crushing etc.
Step 2 – Decide who might be harmed and how
For each hazard, be clear about who could be harmed so you can decide on the best way to manage risk.
All hazards should be identified including those relating to the individual activities and any equipment.
A hazard is something with the potential to cause harm. Only note hazards which could result in significant harm.
Some examples of hazards that should be taken into account:
- Any slipping, tripping or falling
- High noise
- Hazards relating to fire risks or fire evacuation procedures.
- Damage to building or equipment
- Capacity within
- Manual handling
- Equipment being used for the activity & the capabilities of those attending / leading the event
(This list is not exhaustive and you must identify all hazards that relate to your event.)
Once you have identified the hazards, you must also identify the people who may be at risk. Some people may be at greater risk than others, e.g. children, vulnerable or disabled adults.
Some examples are:
- Your own staff
- The venues staff
- Members of the public
- Volunteers
- Children
- Elderly people
- Disabled people
- Local residents
- Contractors
(This list is not exhaustive and you must identify the groups of people relevant to your event.)
Step 3 – Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions
The law requires you to take reasonable steps to protect people from harm. Now you know the hazards and who is at risk, you should identify what controls you already have in place, consider if any of the hazards can be removed entirely, and what you can do to control the risk of any hazards which remain to ensure that harm is unlikely.
You may also need to create a PEEP (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan). This is a plan for individuals who are unable to self-evacuate, and or require assistance.
As the let holder, you are responsible for planning for the evacuation of people who are unable to self- evacuate, and/or require some assistance to do so.
Step 4 – Record your findings and implement
Feel free to use the risk assessment template below to record that
- You’ve done a proper check to identify the full range of hazards.
- You’ve identified and considered everyone who may be at risk.
- You’ve mitigated all the significant hazards and taken into account the number of people that could be involved.
- Your precautions for the remaining risks are reasonable, and the remaining risks are low.
- You record actions to deal with any improvements you need to make.
- You will make regular checks to ensure you keep your control measures in place.
- You can ensure there are clear responsibilities, i.e. who will lead on what actions, and by when.
- Priorities tackle the most important things first, i.e. the hazards that could cause the most harm.
Step 5 – Review your risk assessment
Events may change during the planning and on the day.
You might need to add new activities, locations or equipment and the new hazards they present.
- You need to review your risk assessment to make sure it stays up to
- It’s a good idea to review it before your event and to do another review on the
Risk Assessment - Example and Templates
You can download a Word.doc version of the Template Risk Assessment form here. There is also a downloadable version of this web page for reference.
Below is an example of a risk assessment form.
| Let Holder | Organisation | |||||
| Date of Assessment | Assessor(s) | |||||
| What is the Activity? | Where is the activity Carried out? | |||||
| What are the Hazards? | Who might be harmed? | What are you already doing? | What further action is necessary? | Action by whom? | Action by when? | Completed? |
| Date of next review and who is responsible | ||||||