Health & Safety Risk Assessments

How often should risk assessments be reviewed?

As a general principle, whenever a process, equipment, or site changes, or after an incident, and at a minimum periodically, even without a trigger event.

Do you provide task-specific assessments for high-risk work?

Yes, we assess baseline site risk as well as task-specific risk for activities like working at heights, confined space entry, or hot work.

Can this feed into our existing safety file?

Yes, the completed register is formatted to integrate directly into your safety file documentation.

What risk assessment methodology do you use?

We use a 5×5 likelihood-severity matrix as the baseline, consistent with ISO 31000:2018 risk management principles and the approach expected under OHS Act Section 8(1) and the Construction Regulations 2014 (which require a baseline risk assessment). For specific high-risk activities we apply task-specific methodologies — for example, a Job Safety Analysis (JSA) for non-routine work, or a Hierarchy of Controls analysis aligned to the ILO-OSH 2001 framework. We do not use a single rigid template; the methodology is selected based on the complexity of the task and the regulatory expectation.

How do you handle risk assessments for working at heights?

Working at heights is assessed under the Construction Regulations 2014 (Regulation 10) and the General Safety Regulations. We evaluate fall-protection measures against the hierarchy of controls — collective protection (edge protection, guardrails) before personal protection (fall-arrest systems). We check that any fall-arrest equipment has been inspected by a competent person within the statutory interval, that anchor points are rated, and that a rescue plan exists — a fall-arrest system without a rescue plan is a non-conformance, because suspension trauma can be fatal within minutes.

Do you include a baseline risk assessment for the whole site?

Yes. The Construction Regulations 2014 Regulation 7 and the OHS Act Section 8 both require a baseline (or principal) risk assessment covering the entire workplace. We conduct this first, then layer issue-based and task-specific assessments on top for higher-risk activities. The baseline gives you the strategic risk picture; the task assessments give you the operational detail.

How do you rate risk for cumulative exposure, like noise over an 8-hour shift?

For physical-agent exposures we integrate the risk assessment with occupational hygiene data. Noise exposure is rated against the OEL of 85 dB(A) LAeq8h under the Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024 (which replaced the former Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations in September 2026); dust against the specific OELs in the Regulations for Hazardous Chemical Agents, 2021 (for example 0.1 mg/m³ for respirable crystalline silica) or, on mines, the mining limits. Where monitoring data exists, we use it; where it doesn't, we flag the need for a quantitative survey as a recommendation in the assessment.

Where inspectors find the gaps

When the Department of Employment and Labour inspected 99 workplaces in the Overberg, missing risk assessment documents were among the findings, alongside missing asbestos inventories, untrained first aiders and uncertified installations. Nationally, the Department carried out 310,798 inspections in 2024/25 and found about one employer in four non-compliant.

The risk assessment matters more than its page count suggests. Almost every other duty under the OHS Act, from PPE and training to medical surveillance and emergency planning, is supposed to follow from the risk assessment. If it is missing or clearly generic, an inspector has reason to doubt everything built on it.

What changed in the law since your last review

A risk assessment written against the law as it stood in 2023 is likely missing current requirements. The Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024 took full effect on 6 September 2026 and introduced a lower 82 dB(A) action level where workers are also exposed to ototoxic chemicals or whole-body vibration, so noise now has to be assessed together with solvents and vibration rather than on its own. The Regulations for Hazardous Chemical Agents, 2021 require air monitoring by an approved inspection authority at least every 24 months for agents with maximum or restricted limits. The Physical Agents Regulations, 2024 bring vibration, heat and other physical agents into scope. And ISO 45001 was amended in 2024 to require organisations to consider whether climate change is a relevant issue, which in practice means heat stress, flooding and storm exposure belong in the risk register.

Baseline, issue-based and task-based: which you need

A baseline risk assessment covers the whole workplace and sets your priorities. Issue-based assessments go deeper when something changes: a new machine, a new chemical, a new site or an incident. Task-based assessments, such as a job safety analysis, cover specific high-risk or non-routine work like working at height, confined space entry or hot work.

Most businesses need all three, in that order. The most common gap is a baseline that exists but was never followed by issue-based reviews, so it describes the business as it was when it was written.

What a weak assessment costs

The Compensation Fund registered 107,205 claims in 2024/25. Behind each is an injury or disease, lost production, and often an investigation that starts by asking what the employer knew about the hazard. Under Section 8 of the OHS Act, the question is whether you did what was reasonably practicable. A dated, site-specific risk assessment with controls you can show were implemented is the clearest answer you can give. A template with your logo on it is not.

Signs yours needs review now

Review your risk assessment if any of these are true: it has not been reviewed in the last year; the site layout, equipment, chemicals or headcount have changed since it was written; it does not mention the Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024 or the 82 dB(A) co-exposure action level; it names the old Hazardous Chemical Substances Regulations instead of the 2021 Hazardous Chemical Agents Regulations; no worker who does the task was involved; or the controls it lists do not match what you see on the floor. Any one of these is a finding waiting to happen.