As part of managing the health and safety of your business you must control the risks in your workplace. To do this you need to think about what might cause harm to people and decide whether you are taking reasonable steps to prevent that harm. This is known as risk assessment and it is something you are required by law to carry out. If you have fewer than five employees you don't have to write anything down.

A risk assessment is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork, but rather about identifying sensible measures to control the risks in your workplace. You are probably already taking steps to protect your employees, but your risk assessment will help you decide whether you have covered all you need to.

Think about how accidents and ill health could happen and concentrate on real risks – those that are most likely and which will cause the most harm.

For some risks, other regulations require particular control measures. Your assessment can help you identify where you need to look at certain risks and these particular control measures in more detail. These control measures do not have to be assessed separately but can be considered as part of, or an extension of, your overall risk assessment.

One of the most important aspects of your risk assessment is accurately identifying the potential hazards in your workplace. A good starting point is to walk around your workplace and think about any hazards. In other words, what is it about the activities, processes or substances used that could injure your employees or harm their health?

When you work in a place every day it is easy to overlook some hazards, so here are some tips to help you identify the ones that matter:

Check manufacturers' instructions or data sheets for chemicals and equipment as they can be very helpful in spelling out the hazards and putting them in their true perspective

Look back at your accident and ill-health records - these often help to identify the less obvious hazards

Take account of non-routine operations (e.g. maintenance, cleaning operations or changes in production cycles) Remember also to think about long-term hazards to health (e.g. high levels of noise or exposure to harmful substances).Visit the HSE website for practical guidance on hazards and how to control them

There are some hazards with a recognised risk of harm, for example working at height, working with chemicals, machinery, and asbestos. Depending on the type of work you do, there may be other hazards that are relevant to your business.

Having identified the hazards, you then have to decide how likely it is that harm will occur; i.e. the level of risk and what to do about it. Risk is a part of everyday life and you are not expected to eliminate all risks. What you must do is make sure you know about the main risks and the things you need to do to manage them responsibly.

Generally, you need to do everything 'reasonably practicable'. This means balancing the level of risk against the measures needed to control the real risk in terms of money, time or trouble. However, you do not need to take action if it would be grossly disproportionate to the level of risk.

Your risk assessment should only include what you could reasonably be expected to know - you are not expected to anticipate unforeseeable risks.

Look at what you're already doing, and the control measures you already have in place. Ask yourself, “Can I get rid of the hazard altogether? If not, how can I control the risks so that harm is unlikely?”

Some practical steps you could take include:

• trying a less risky option
• preventing access to the hazards
• organising work to reduce exposure to the hazard
• issuing protective equipment
• providing welfare facilities such as first aid and washing facilities

Involving your workers, so that you can be sure that what you propose to do will work in practice and won't introduce any new hazard.

Improving health and safety need not cost a lot. For instance, placing a mirror on a dangerous, blind corner to help prevent vehicle accidents is a low-cost precaution considering the risks. Failure to take simple precautions can cost you a lot more if an accident does happen.

W: www.hse.gov.uk