By law, employers must assess the health and safety risks in their organisation. They must do this for all places where work is carried out. This includes working from home and working remotely.
Employers should involve workers to:
- identify any risks
- decide how to remove or reduce the risks
- make any changes to avoid or reduce risks
If an employer hires workers through an agency, they must include them in risk assessments.
Employers should review risk assessments regularly to make sure everyone's working environments remain safe and healthy.
Find advice on risk assessments from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
When a risk assessment needs to be in writing
By law, an organisation with 5 or more workers must do a written risk assessment.
An organisation with less than 5 workers does not have to do a written assessment. But it's still a good idea to do this, so that:
- everyone knows what they've agreed to do to reduce the risks
- the employer is taking their duty to consider risks seriously
Download a risk assessment template from the Health and Safety Executive
Individual risk assessments
In some situations, an employer must do a risk assessment for an individual person.
For example:
- if someone tells their employer in writing they are pregnant, breastfeeding or have given birth in the last 6 months
- to protect someone from stress
Find out more about:
If a worker is unhappy with a risk assessment
If a worker is not happy with how a risk assessment is handled, they can raise this with their employer. It's usually best to raise the problem informally first by talking with their employer.
If that does not resolve the issue they can raise a grievance. This is where they make a formal complaint to their employer.
If someone works through an agency, they can also raise it with their employment agency.
For any questions about raising a problem, contact the Acas helpline.