Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
As businesses start to reopen, the safety of your staff, customers and your suppliers is a priority. One of the first areas to address is your coronavirus risk assessment.
The government has published a series of eight guides to help businesses to reopen across key sectors.
We’ll delve deeper into how you conduct your own risk assessment to ensure that your business is COVID-19 secure.
When should I be doing a coronavirus risk assessment?
If you’re already trading, you need to do it now to prove that you’re working safely. Those who have more time would be wise to carry one out now too.
You have an obligation under Section 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 to do a standard risk assessment. The government recommend that you take out a risk assessment in line with Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance.
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the minimum you must do is:
Identify what could cause injury or illness in your business (hazards)
Decide how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how seriously (the risk)
Take action to eliminate the hazard, or if this isn’t possible, control