INSPECTION AND TESTING TECHNICAL
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Risk assessment guidance A risk assessment is typically defined as “a systematic process of evaluating the potential risk that may be involved in a projected activity or undertaking” and there is plenty of guidance available. In the revised COP, it is highlighted that, if necessary, the duty holder can be supported by a competent person when assessing the frequency of inspection and testing, and it should be noted that there is not a definitive method of carrying out a risk assessment and that these need to be reviewed regularly to ensure control measures remain effective and relevant. With this in mind, it may be useful to those undertaking risk assessment to look over the HSE Risk Assessment publication. This is available to download for free from the HSE website at www.
hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg163.htm It is also recognised that in some work
environments the risk profile may be more easily defined, e.g. a hotel or office where the skill of the user of equipment is known, the environment predictable and the range of equipment limited. For those premises, the HSE document
HSG107 may be an appropriate reference for the duty holder and competent persons involved in the risk assessment for inspection and testing purposes and should be considered. This is also free of charge and available from the HSE website at
www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/ priced/hsg107.pdf For other types of work environment, it
is however recommended that the duty holder should carry out a risk assessment to take account of the specific workplace and type and class of equipment in use. This could also include taking account of any procedures in place to manage risk, e.g. have procedures been put in place to provide staff training where necessary? And have measures to require user checks and visual inspections been implemented? It may be that this is all that is necessary in some instances!
Risk assessment procedure When carrying out a risk assessment, the duty holder should think about the list of considerations provided below, which should enable an informed decision to be made of the ongoing inspection and
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testing required to ensure that equipment remains in a safe and operational condition: ●The environment in which the equipment is to be used, e.g. consider whether equipment is likely to be subject to harsh treatment, an office being relatively low risk while a construction site would be regarded as significantly higher. ●Consider who the equipment user will be – is it likely to be an ordinary person, like a site visitor, or will it be an employee with specific training? Has a system been established where user checks are carried out on equipment before use? Is there a mechanism established for reporting any defective equipment found? Note: User checks and visual inspections are one of the most important checks that can be carried out on equipment and can be used to easily identify many of the defects that often occur in the plug, cable and casing of equipment. ●The equipment construction should be considered, e.g. Class I equipment would be regarded as a higher risk than Class II equipment as it relies on connection to the protective earthing arrangement of the fixed installation for safety. Class II equipment is not dependant on the safety of the electrical installation and in low risk environments testing may not be necessary at all. ●The equipment type should be considered – handheld equipment would be considered more likely to suffer damage than other equipment and subsequently there would be a higher risk from it, with less risk
associated with fixed equipment. ●The frequency of use of the equipment would have implications for the equipment’s service life and possible likelihood of damage. ●The type of installation that the equipment will be connected to should be considered as the position of isolation and type of cable management used and circuit protection provided may be important with regard to the equipment safety, e.g. is there RCD protection on the socket-outlets to be used? ●Importantly, is a system of maintenance established and being operated and do inspection and test records exist for the equipment? ●Functional in-service life may have an effect on how often the equipment is checked if it has been designed to have an intentionally short life because of built in components.
Model example risk assessments The risks associated with the class and type of equipment being used in the defined environments will obviously vary between workplaces. Example risk assessments have been provided in the revised COP to help duty holders quantify the risk to which equipment is exposed in their own workplaces.
These new assessments are shown for information in the tables on these pages. However, they should not be adopted as definitive and the duty holder or competent person providing advice should make the effort to make the risk assessment specific to the workplace being assessed in each instance.
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