DSEAR risk assessment requirements: what has to be in it

When an assessment is required

Regulation 5(1) is triggered wherever a dangerous substance is or is liable to be present at the workplace: the employer must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to employees arising from that substance (legislation.gov.uk). Liable to be present matters: substances that arrive occasionally, or that are generated by a process such as dust from sanding, count.

What the assessment must take into account

• The hazardous properties of the substance.
• Information on safety provided by the supplier, including safety data sheets.
• The circumstances of the work, including the processes, the amounts involved, any interaction between substances and the arrangements for safe handling, storage and transport.
• Activities such as maintenance where the potential for risk is high.
• The effect of measures already taken or to be taken.
• The likelihood that an explosive atmosphere will occur and its persistence.
• The likelihood that ignition sources, including electrostatic discharges, will be present and become active and effective.
• The scale of the anticipated effects of a fire or explosion.
• Any places connected via openings to places where explosive atmospheres may occur.
• Any additional safety information the employer needs to complete the assessment.

Review and record

Review, regulation 5(3)

The assessment must be reviewed regularly so as to keep it up to date, and in particular where there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid or there has been a significant change in the matters to which it relates, including the workplace, the work processes or the organisation of the work.

Record, regulation 5(4)

Where five or more people are employed, the significant findings must be recorded as soon as practicable, including the measures taken or to be taken, sufficient information on the design of the workplace to show it is safe, and where relevant the zone classification and the verification that explosion safety has been achieved.

Using the list to judge a proposal

1. Check the proposal addresses ignition sources explicitly, including electrostatic discharge. A study that only lists substances is incomplete.
2. Check it covers maintenance and non-routine work. Regulation 5 singles those out, and they are where most incidents start.
3. Check it deals with connected spaces. Openings between a zoned area and an adjacent room are a classic omission.
4. Check the deliverable maps onto the significant findings in regulation 5(4), so the document you receive is the record you are required to keep.

HSE's Approved Code of Practice and guidance for DSEAR is L138, second edition 2013, and it is free to download. If a proposal does not reference it or an equivalent standard, ask what the assessment method is.