A risk assessment is an essential feature of planning any event. It identifies all the potential risks that may arise from holding an event and lists the steps event organisers will take to reduce or mitigate identified risks.
For every event a ‘responsible person’ should carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of safety, covering all aspects of the event applicable to contractors, public, performers/artists and participants.
The assessment should also cover any ‘structures’ eg tents, inflatables, static sites, routes or risks associated with the nature of the event.
The assessment should be carried out by a ‘competent person’, preferably by someone organising the event. If however there is no one who is ‘competent’, then an outside consultant, who is deemed to be ‘competent’, should be employed to undertake the risk assessment. A consultant may not take ownership of the findings and resultant remedial work identified by the assessment, as this is still the responsibility of the ‘responsible person’ within the organisation.
When undertaking the assessment, the organisation should adhere to any statutory requirements applicable to the event.
This risk assessment document should only be used as a guide to assist you in the process of carrying out the risk assessment, relating to the safety of your event, and must remain dynamic, not static.
The risk assessment must be conducted in a practical and systematic way to identify the significant hazards and safety deficiencies at the event. It is not a desktop exercise and dependent upon the size and nature of the event, you may find it useful to include a plan of the area identifying the hazards.
When carrying out the risk assessment, you should identify the hazards, persons at risks, existing control measures, risk rating, remedial actions to be taken.
The Five Steps in Carrying Out a Risk Assessment
Step 1 - Identify the hazards and potential hazards;
Step 2 - Identify the people at risk in that area of the above hazard, such as staff, spectators, participants, visitors, contractors, children, disabled, etc.;
Step 3 - Evaluate the risk from the hazards and decide whether the safety measures to be implemented are adequate to remove, reduce or control the risk;
Step 4 - Record the findings and actions taken;
Step 5 - Keep the assessments under review, monitor and revise where 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. The following should be taken into account:
• Any slipping, tripping or falling hazards.
• Hazards relating to fire risks or fire evacuation procedures.
• Any chemicals or other substances hazardous to health eg dust or fumes.
• Moving parts of machinery.
• Any vehicles/ generators/ fuel dumps on site.
• Electrical safety eg use of any portable electrical appliances.
• Manual handling activities.
• High noise levels.
• Poor lighting, heating or ventilation.
• Any possible risk from specific demonstrations or activities.
• Using public roads, vehicle movement, traffic, etc.
• Crowd intensity and pinch points.
• The effect of crowd excitement arising from the activities.
• Weather/ temperature/ season.
• Alcohol/drugs.
• Structures and loadings, marquees/ tents suitability, inflatable equipment, etc.
• Any other activity specific to that event which could pose a hazard.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and care should be taken to identify any other hazards associated with the activities at the event.
Identifying those at risk
For each hazard identified, list all those who may be affected. Do not list individuals by name, just list groups of people. The following should be considered:
• Stewards/ marshals.
• Event participants.
• Employees/ volunteers.
• Contractors.
• Vendors, exhibitors and performers.
• Members of the public/ spectators.
• Disabled persons.
• Children and elderly persons.
• Potential trespassers.
• Expectant mothers.
• Local residents.
Areas to Consider
The following are examples of areas to consider:
• Type of event.
• Potential major incidents.
• Site hazards, including car parks.
• Types of attendees such as children, elderly persons and the disabled.
• Crowd control, capacity, access and egress and stewarding.
• Provision for the emergency services.
• Provision of first aid.
• Provision of facilities.
• Fire, security and cash collection.
• Health and safety issues.
• Exhibitors and demonstrations.
• Amusements and attractions.
• Structures (including temporary, stages, barriers, stands, inflatables, tents, etc.)
• Waste management.
• Environment.
Assessing 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.
For each hazard note down the severity number and the likelihood number using the Risk assessment Matrix (see table below).
Risk Assessment Matrix
You should list the existing controls and assess whether or not any further measures 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.
Action to Control 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:
Hazard
Remove the hazard altogether;
Replace the existing hazard with a safer alternative;
Reduce the hazard to little or no risk by introducing control measures;
Segregate the hazard from the public;
Consider the use of personal protective equipment.
Safety Precautions
Inform all employees / stewards / marshals of the significant findings of the risk assessment, and any other affected person, eg caterers, contractors, etc;
Instruct and train staff / stewards / marshals in what to do in the event of an incident.
Residual Risk
The residual risk is the portion of risk remaining after control measures have been implemented. The following table gives suggested actions for the three different levels of residual risk:
Record the Risk Assessment Findings
Use the Risk Assessment Form to record all significant hazards, the nature and extent of the risks, and the action required to control them. You could also refer to other documents you may have, such as manuals, codes of practice etc. but please submit copies of these with your risk assessment.
Review and Revise
Risks are never static and should be continually reviewed and updated to reflect the changes during the planning of the event.
Information
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.
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