What should be in a hazard register

To work out the level of risk, determine how likely it is to occur and what the possible severity of injuries could be. Using a risk matrix like the one below is a useful guide.

Once you have identified the level of risk, you must do what is reasonable and practical to eliminate it. Common controls, such as Codes of Practice, guidelines and standard procedures can be applied for common risks. Remember to talk to subbies and anyone else on site about risks resulting from your work.

Use a risk registerto record your common hazards and controls. Controls can be ordered from most effective to least. The most effective control is one that eliminates the risk, the least effective control is one that just minimises it, such as using PPE. Substitute, isolate and engineer are classed as being as equally effective.

You will often need to use multiple controls on a single risk. Fire Extinguisher, Safety Showers : Fire safety is managed through approved evacuation plans and where required authorised by the Fire Service. Training is provided by an external consultation for Fire and Building Wardens. Each building is required to hold 6 monthly 1 per semester fire drills managed by the Building Warden. Firefighting equipment is a part of the building consent process and is maintained by Property Services.

Departmental safety equipment such as emergency showers and eye wash stations are required to be tested by the department at specified intervals. Civil Defence and building kits are provided as a part of the Emergency Management Plan. For each building, there must be a:. Each department should have at least one trained First Aider. When thinking about how many trained First Aiders you need, take into account things like:.

Allow for some of your First Aiders to be absent on planned or unplanned leave, such as sick leave. Suitable First Aid supplies need to be maintained and will be dependent on similar factors to those above.

First Aid qualifications need to be re-validated every two years. See health and safety training web page. First Aid guidelines. The University has a number of AEDs onsite. A central register of Defibrillator locations is maintained and the locations of these is recorded on the Emergency Flipcharts.

All workers and students should make themselves familiar with the location of these units. People who complete First Aid qualifications will receive training in the use of these units and other sessions of training are held throughout the year to familiarise people with their operation.

See the health and safety training website. Hazard Matrix. Health and Safety A - Z. COVID information. Find out more Future student? Current Students Close. For Otago Staff Close. About University of Otago Close. Research and Enterprise at Otago Close. Learning and teaching Close. International at Otago Close.

Rowly Brown Simon, I agree with you that Hazard Registers are important and if properly done are central to a lot of health and safety activity. I also agree that they are generally poorly constructed, generic, symbolic, and generally exist because someone heard somewhere that a business had to have one. Hazard Registers are not legally mandated, but it is a legislated requirement to identify and assess hazards. Proving that this has been done to a Worksafe Inspector or a judge is most easily achieved by having some form of record of those identified hazards, and a Hazard Register is probably what they would be looking for.

Previously businesses were required to identify hazards, and then assess whether or not they were a Significant Hazard, i. A hazard register should have at least 4 components, but to be really useful and effectual at least an additional 3. A Rating of the level of risk the raw hazard presents based on an assessment of Severity, Frequency of Exposure, and Probability of Occurrence. These components are best expressed numerically using large numerical groups, e.

A description of the practicable controls to be applied to risk. A Revised Rating of the level of risk anticipated when all the available practicable controls are in place. There may be many elemental controls available, some able to be implemented collectively, and some implemented in the alternative. Breaking down analysing the definition of Reasonably Practicable and applying it to the available control options the most practicable control can be identified by the attendant reduction in risk.

In such instances the register pretty much represents a simple form filling exercise. Rowly Brown Options Share 2. Andrew The "risk register" is probably my number one most important resource. Its where I keep, for each separate work area: - all our identified risks - so it keeps growing as we find more and shrinking as we get rid of some.

Down to the required PPE - A repository of relevant, reference and related documents eg Worksafe guides, SDS and SOPs Most importantly, for me, every employee has access to all this information - firstly for their own work area, but they can also see every other work area. It also helpful for inventory management. For example if I want to know what all me chemicals are or where all my "noisy" areas I can easily grab this information.

Andrew Options Share 3. Sheri Greenwell But somehow very few safety people even really know how to go about creating a meaningful and useful risk register. It is so helpful to start with understanding what you want the risk register to do for you and who is the intended audience - so often that gets lost at the start, and they end up with a jumbled mess that no one can use. I am very fortunate to be working with a company at the moment that really gets this. They have a Master Risk Register that covers the entire organisation, and from which site risk registers are created - already that keeps everything strategically and operationally well aligned.

Controls are identified in two main categories - engineering controls and administrative controls. Administrative controls list relevant SOPs, regulatory or industry standards, or elements such as training, The details are in the references listed under the controls. I have seen too many risk registers with a whole list of instructions that should rightly be in a relevant SOP or work instructions. Otherwise you end up with a document that is too complicated for workers to use and too cluttered for executives to use.

Site managers and HSRs are trained how to use the risk registers as a tool for incident investigation, hazard identification and risk management. Sheri Greenwell Options Share 4. Mark Kenny-Beveridge Following on from this; how are we all keeping our registers?