COVID-19 Risk Assessment

What is involved in a COVID-19 risk assessment?

This was covered in a recent blog post and can be found here.  In summary the key areas that must be covered are as follows:

• Identification of the key activities that might might cause employees an others to be exposed to the virus;
• Consideration of all those who might be at risk from exposure to the virus;
• How likely are those who might be at risk based on the controls that may or may not be in place; (evaluating the risk)
• Provide measures that will either remove the risk of exposure to the virus of control exposure to an acceptable level of risk.

The above key steps are no different to the steps that you would cover in a standard general risk assessment process.  If you’re new to the process of risk assessment we have a dedicated page covering this subject in detail which can be found here.

Central to a COVID-19 risk assessment is to ensure that social distancing measures are in place and are maintained.  The government has set out recent changes to social distancing measures and these should be considered as part of the risk assessment.

To provide further guidance in completing a COVID-19 risk assessment the government has provided sector specific guidance.  This list is regularly updated as more business sectors return to work.  Ensure that you follow the guidance specific to your sector of work.  Also consider guidance/best practice that is being recommended your by trade bodies.

If you have 5 or more employees, the law requires that this risk assessment is written down.  If you have fewer than 5 employees there is no legal requirement to have your arrangements formally written down, however, you will still need to demonstrate if you had a visit from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or Local Authority (LA) inspector how you have complied with the COVID-19 risk assessment requirement.

Our advice is that you should always document your health and arrangements.  These don’t need to be complex.

Is there anything else that needs to be done?

The risk assessment is the key requirement that has to be put in place.  In order for employees and others to be able to visit your premises, it needs to be COVID-19 Secure.  So what do we mean by COVID-19 Secure.  The employer will need to demonstrate the following:

• A COVID-19 risk assessment has been completed;
• Cleaning, handwashing and hygiene procedures are in place as per government guidance;
• All reasonable measure have been taken to help your staff to work from home;
• All reasonable steps have been taken to maintain a 2 metre distance (social distancing) in the workplace.
• If this is not possible everything has been done to manage the risk of transmission.  The latest guidance on social distancing provides for a 1 metre+ deduction with appropriate mitigation.  More information on social distancing can be found in our latest covid-19 update.

How can we help?

Looking through all the guidance on what is required could be daunting, because there is a lot of it with regular updates.   The government has provided some very good guidance and if followed will allow businesses to demonstrate that they have a COVID-19 Secure premises.

If after looking through what is required, you still feel that you would like to work with us to assist with completing your assessment then that would be great.  We have worked with several organisations with completing their COVID-19 risk assessment.

So, get in touch and we will contact you within 24 hrs of your request.  Once we have all the relevant information we will provide you with a written quotation for the work.