Event risk assessment guidance
Event Risk Assessment
Your risk assessment will be the key document ensuring the safe planning of your event. It involves a careful examination of each attraction within an event and recording the significant findings.
Follow these basic steps of risk assessment and try not to overcomplicate the assessment:
- Identify the hazards
- Decide who might be harmed and how
- Evaluate the risks and decide whether any existing precautions are adequate or
- Whether more could be done
- Record your findings
- Review your assessment and revise as necessary.
Identifying the Hazards
All hazards should be identified including those relating to the individual activities and any equipment. A hazard is something with the potential to cause harm. Only note hazards which could result in significant harm. Examples of things that should be taken into account include:
- Venue and site design
- Any slipping, tripping or falling hazards
- Hazards relating to fire risks or fire evacuation procedures
- Any chemicals or other substances hazardous to health e.g. dust or fumes
- Moving parts of machinery
- Vehicles movements on site and transport
- Electrical safety e.g. use of any portable electrical appliances, lighting
- Manual handling activities
- High noise levels
- Poor lighting, heating or ventilation
- Any possible risk from specific demonstrations or activities
- Crowd intensity and pinch points/ Audience profile and capacity
- Structures and Barriers
- Structural Safety calculations & drawings
- Fuel use and storage
- Special effects - lasers / strobes etc
- Fairground Rides / Attractions
- Access and exits
- Construction and site dismantling
Decide who might be harmed and how
For each hazard identified, list all groups of people who may be affected for example;
Stewards, employees, volunteers, and contractors and vendors and exhibitors, performers, members of the public (including children, elderly persons, expectant mothers and disabled persons), local residents and potential trespassers.
Evaluate the Risk
The extent of the risk arising from the hazards identified must be evaluated and existing control measures taken into account. The risk is the likelihood of the harm arising from the hazard. You should list the existing controls and assess whether or not any further controls are required. The following should be taken into account:
- Any information, instruction and training regarding the event and the activities involved
- Compliance with legislative standards, codes of good practice and British Standards
- Whether or not the existing controls have reduced the risk as far as is reasonably practicable
It may be helpful to group risks into high, medium and low.
Decide on Actions to Control the Risk
For each risk consider whether or not it can be eliminated completely. If it cannot, then decide what must be done to reduce it to an acceptable level. Only use personal protective equipment as a last resort when there is nothing else you can reasonably do. Consider the following:
- Remove the hazard
- Prevent access to the hazard eg by guarding dangerous parts of machinery
- Implement procedures to reduce expose to the hazard
- Find a substitute for that activity/machine etc
- The use of personal protective equipment
Record the Risk Assessment Findings
Use the attached Risk Assessment Form to record all significant hazards, the nature and extent of the risks, and the action required to control them. Keep this for a future reference and use. You could also refer to other documents you may have, such as manuals, codes of practice etc.
Where the risk assessment has identified significant risks, you must provide information to all those affected, regarding the nature of the risk and the control measures to be implemented.
Review and Revise as Necessary
Risk assessments need to be reviewed periodically, or after a change of circumstances to either the activity or the persons involved, after a near miss or an actual problem, upon a change of legislation or guidance.
For further guidance refer to;
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