Risk Assessment, Accidents & RIDDOR

In risk assessment, what is meant by a hazard?

• AThe likelihood that harm will actually occur
• BThe number of people exposed to a danger
• CSomething with the potential to cause harm✓
• DThe combination of likelihood and severity of harm

Answer: A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm, such as an open excavation, a live cable or silica dust. Risk is the separate concept of how likely it is that the hazard will cause harm and how serious that harm would be, and the number of people exposed is one factor that feeds into the risk rather than the hazard itself.

For how long must an employer keep the records made in the accident book?

• AOne year
• BThree years✓
• CFive years
• DTen years

Answer: Accident book entries, which are also the record required for over-3-day injuries, must be kept for at least three years from the date they are made. One year is too short to satisfy the requirement, and while an employer may choose to keep records longer, five or ten years is not the legal minimum.

An employer with five or more employees carries out a risk assessment under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. What must it do with the result?

• ASend the assessment to the HSE for approval before work starts
• BHave the assessment countersigned by the client before it is used
• CHave the assessment signed off by a union safety representative
• DRecord the significant findings and any group especially at risk✓

Answer: Regulation 3 requires an employer with five or more employees to record the significant findings of the assessment and identify any group of employees especially at risk. The HSE does not approve assessments, and while workers and representatives should be consulted, there is no legal requirement for a safety representative or a client to sign the document.

In the classic five-step approach to risk assessment, which step follows identifying the hazards?

• ADeciding who might be harmed and how✓
• BReviewing and updating the assessment
• CRecording the significant findings
• DEvaluating the risks and deciding on precautions

Answer: The sequence is to identify the hazards, decide who might be harmed and how, evaluate the risks and decide on precautions, record the significant findings, and then review and update. HSE's current web guidance folds 'who might be harmed' into 'assess the risks', but the classic sequence is the one CITB revision material teaches. Working out who is exposed, including visitors, the public and vulnerable workers, must come before precautions can be chosen or findings recorded.

A site manager can either issue respirators for silica dust or switch to a wet-cutting method. Which should be chosen first under the principles of prevention?

• AEither, since both sit at the same level of the hierarchy
• BRespirators, because they protect each worker directly
• CWet cutting, because it controls the dust at source✓
• DRespirators, because they are quicker to issue

Answer: The principles of prevention require combating risks at source and giving collective measures priority over individual protection, so an engineering control such as wet cutting must be considered before PPE. Respirators sit at the bottom of the hierarchy, depend on face fit and correct use, and protect only the wearer, so speed of issue is no justification for choosing them ahead of wet cutting.

Why should a site manager record and investigate near misses that caused no injury?

• AThey must all be reported to the HSE online under RIDDOR
• BThey are used to calculate the Fee for Intervention charge
• CThey warn of where a serious accident may happen next✓
• DThey count towards the site's over-3-day injury totals

Answer: Near misses reveal failures in controls before anyone is hurt, and the same circumstances repeated will eventually produce an injury, so investigating them is a cheap way to prevent accidents. Only a defined list of dangerous occurrences is reportable under RIDDOR, near misses involve no lost time so cannot count as over-3-day injuries, and Fee for Intervention is based on material breaches found by inspectors.

What is the purpose of a method statement?

• ATo set out the safe system of work for a specific task in sequence✓
• BTo notify the client of a proposed change to the programme
• CTo authorise a high-risk task for a fixed period of time
• DTo record the significant findings of the risk assessment

Answer: A method statement describes step by step how a task will be carried out safely, translating the controls from the risk assessment into a sequence the workforce can follow. The risk assessment itself records the findings, a permit-to-work authorises a high-risk task for a set period, and programme changes are a contractual matter.

Which of these tasks is most likely to require a permit-to-work system?

• AFixing plasterboard sheets to a stud partition
• BLaying block paving to a car park
• CHot works on a partly occupied building✓
• DPainting internal walls with emulsion

Answer: Permits-to-work are used for high-risk activities such as hot works, confined space entry, work on live electrical systems and excavation near buried services, where the sequence, isolations and checks must be formally authorised and signed off. Plasterboarding, emulsion painting and block paving are routine tasks controlled adequately by a risk assessment and method statement.

A subcontractor submits a generic risk assessment for roof work. What should the site manager require before accepting it?

• AThat it is submitted to the HSE for comment before work starts
• BThat it is rewritten in the principal contractor's own template
• CThat it is made specific to this site and its conditions✓
• DThat it is signed by the subcontractor's managing director

Answer: A generic assessment is only a starting point; it must be adapted to reflect the actual roof, access, fragile surfaces, weather, adjacent hazards and the people doing the work before it is suitable and sufficient. A director's signature or a particular template does not make it site-specific, and the HSE does not review assessments before work.

A bricklayer fractures a finger falling from a hop-up and is unable to work for five days. What must the responsible person do under RIDDOR 2013?

• ARecord it in the accident book only✓
• BReport it as a dangerous occurrence within 10 days
• CReport it as an over-7-day injury within 15 days
• DReport it as a specified injury without delay

Answer: Fractures to fingers, thumbs and toes are excluded from the list of specified injuries, and five days of incapacitation does not reach the over-7-day reporting threshold, so this is an over-3-day injury that must be recorded but not reported. It is not a dangerous occurrence, which covers events such as scaffold collapses and lifting equipment failures regardless of injury.

An operative is incapacitated for more than seven consecutive days after a work-related injury. Within what period must the RIDDOR report be made?

• AWithin 10 days of the accident
• BWithin 3 days of the accident
• CWithin 15 days of the accident✓
• DWithin 7 days of the accident

Answer: Over-7-day injuries, counted excluding the day of the accident but including weekends and rest days, must be reported to the HSE within 15 days of the accident. Ten days from the accident is the period for the written report of a death or specified injury, which must first be notified without delay, and the shorter periods are not RIDDOR deadlines.

A worker is killed on site. How must the responsible person notify the HSE under RIDDOR 2013?

• AOnline within 10 days, after the coroner has been informed
• BIn writing within 15 days, once the investigation is complete
• CBy telephone within 24 hours, with no written report needed
• DWithout delay, then a written report within 10 days✓

Answer: Deaths and specified injuries must be notified by the quickest practicable means, which allows a telephone call, and followed by a written report within 10 days. Fifteen days applies only to over-7-day injuries, notification must not wait for internal investigations or other authorities, and a call alone does not satisfy the requirement for a written report.

Which of these events is a dangerous occurrence reportable under RIDDOR 2013?

• AA worker slipping on a wet floor without injury
• BThe collapse of a scaffold more than 5 metres high✓
• CA hand tool dropped from a scaffold onto an empty walkway
• DA near miss with a reversing delivery vehicle

Answer: The complete or partial collapse of a substantial part of a scaffold more than 5 metres high is a listed dangerous occurrence and must be reported even if nobody is hurt. Slips, vehicle near misses and dropped tools are worth recording and investigating internally but are not on the RIDDOR schedule of dangerous occurrences.

After a serious injury on site, what is the primary aim of the site manager's accident investigation?

• ATo establish which individual is to blame for the accident
• BTo identify the root causes so a recurrence can be prevented✓
• CTo confirm the injured person's account before the HSE arrives
• DTo gather evidence to defend a civil compensation claim

Answer: Investigation looks beyond the immediate cause to the underlying failures in planning, supervision, competence or equipment so that the same event cannot happen again. Focusing on blame discourages honest reporting, building a legal defence is a secondary use of the findings, and where the HSE may investigate a serious injury the scene must be preserved rather than accounts rehearsed.