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📋 Toolbox Talk  ·  Health & Safety

Risk Assessments:
5 Steps to a Safer Workplace

The HSE 5-step risk assessment process, what workers need to know, when a written assessment is required, review obligations and your right to see it.

✅ Verified August 2026📚 HSE · MHSW Regs 1999🇬🇧 Applies across the UKukworkrights.co.uk
The law

Why risk assessments are required

  • The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require every employer to carry out risk assessments for all work activities
  • Employers with 5 or more employees must record the significant findings in writing
  • A risk assessment is not a form-filling exercise — it's a genuine assessment of what could go wrong and what steps to take
  • Risk assessments must be suitable and sufficient — not just a tick-box
  • They must be reviewed when circumstances change or when they are no longer valid
  • Workers and their representatives have the right to be consulted on risk assessments
  • You have the right to see any risk assessment that affects your work

⚠ A bad risk assessment is not compliance

A risk assessment that fails to identify significant hazards, or fails to implement adequate controls, is not legally compliant — regardless of how many pages it has.
The process

HSE's 5-step risk assessment

1
Identify the hazards

What could cause harm? Walk around the workplace, talk to workers, review accident records, consider all activities and who might be affected.

2
Decide who might be harmed and how

Think about employees, contractors, visitors, members of the public. Consider vulnerable groups — new workers, young people, pregnant workers.

3
Evaluate risks and decide on controls

How likely is harm and how severe? What controls are in place? What more is needed? Apply the hierarchy of control — eliminate, substitute, engineer, administrate, PPE.

4
Record findings (5+ employees)

Document significant hazards, who is at risk and the controls in place. Keep it simple and practical — not a bureaucratic exercise.

5
Review and update

Review when: significant changes occur, after an accident or near-miss, if controls may no longer be effective. At minimum, review annually.

Key concepts

Risk assessment — terms explained

Hazard
Something with the potential to cause harm — a chemical, a trailing cable, a slippery floor
Risk
The likelihood of harm actually occurring and how severe it would be
Control
A measure taken to eliminate or reduce the risk to an acceptable level
Suitable
Appropriate for the specific hazard and group of people who might be harmed
Sufficient
Goes far enough to identify and control the significant risks — not every conceivable risk
Review
Active check that controls are still working — not just filing the form and forgetting it
Common questions

Frequently asked questions

Does every task need a separate risk assessment?
Not necessarily. A single risk assessment can cover a range of similar activities. The important thing is that it is suitable and sufficient — it identifies the hazards relevant to each activity and the people at risk.
Can workers carry out their own risk assessments?
Yes — particularly for dynamic risk assessments in the field. But workers must be trained and competent to do so. The employer retains overall responsibility for ensuring assessments are adequate.
What is a dynamic risk assessment?
An on-the-spot assessment carried out in real time when circumstances change unexpectedly — common in emergency services, social care, construction and maintenance. Workers must be trained to recognise hazards and apply appropriate controls in the moment.
Can I see the risk assessment for my job?
Yes. Employers must share relevant health and safety information with workers — including risk assessments that affect their work. If you've been refused access to a risk assessment relating to your role, raise it with your safety rep or HSE.
For whoever runs this talk

Delivery notes & attendance record

Suggested length: 10–15 minutes. A toolbox talk is a short briefing on one hazard, given by a supervisor to the crew doing the work.

Before you start

Use a real task from today rather than a generic example. The goal is that people see risk assessment as something they do, not paperwork someone else files.

Questions to ask the team
  1. What are the top three risks in the job you are doing today?
  2. Have you read the risk assessment for it?
  3. Has anything changed on site that the assessment does not cover?
  4. What would you change about how we work if it were your call?
The law behind this talk

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 reg. 3 (suitable and sufficient assessment; record it if you have 5 or more employees)

Employers must give workers comprehensible information, instruction and training on the risks they face — Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 s.2(2)(c) and Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 reg. 10. Keep the record below as evidence that you did.

Attendance record
TopicRisk Assessments: 5 Steps to a Safer Workplace
Date
Site / location
Delivered by
Actions agreed
Next talk due
Attendees
NameSignature

Use the Print handout button to print this record. General guidance only, not legal advice.

Free H&S guidance

Risk Assessments
free guidance

Get plain-English guidance on your rights and your employer's legal duties.

HSE Infoline
0300 003 1747
hse.gov.uk
ACAS
0300 123 1100
acas.org.uk
Citizens Advice
0800 144 8848
citizensadvice.org.uk
UK Work Rights
Risk Assessments
ukworkrights.co.uk/toolbox-riskassessment.html

General guidance only — not legal advice · Verified August 2026 · © UK Work Rights Ltd · Company No. 17228507 · ICO registered · Registered office: 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ
Written and maintained by Matt Thompson, founder