We are pleased to offer a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) compliant risk assessment template, available in Excel format via a Google Sheets spreadsheet. This template can be copied and customised to help you conduct a thorough risk assessment for your business.
Easily accessible and editable, this template ensures you can keep track of your business risks digitally without the need for printing out documents.
This template is based on the HSE risk assessment format, but with the added convenience of being in an Excel spreadsheet. This means you can easily copy, edit, and use the template as needed, without the hassle of printing and storing hard copies. It’s designed to be user-friendly and adaptable to any business, making risk management more straightforward and efficient.
How to Use This Free Risk Assessment Template?
The template is divided into two main sections:
1. Basic Information
In this section, you will provide essential details about the assessment, including:
Company Name
Assessment Carried Out By
Date Assessment Was Carried Out
Planned Date of Next Review
Here’s an example of how to fill in this section:
2. Risk Logging and Assessment
This section is where you will log and evaluate the risks associated with your business. The table includes the following headers:
What is the hazard? – Identify potential hazards in your business operations.
Who might be harmed and how? – Specify who could be affected by each hazard and how they could be harmed.
What are you already doing to control the risks? – Note existing measures in place to mitigate the risks.
What further action do you need to take to control the risks? – List additional actions required to further reduce or eliminate risks.
Who needs to carry out the action? – Assign responsibility for implementing the necessary actions.
When is the action needed by? – Set deadlines for when the actions should be completed.
Done – Mark when actions are completed.
Examples of risks you can look for
Every business is unique and has its own risks. Below we will provide a list of some of the more common risks that appear in businesses, to assist you in customising your Excel business risk assessment template. This is not a comprehensive list, so please be vigilant and look for the unique risks within your own business.
Office Environment
Ergonomic Risks:
Poor posture
Inadequate seating
Repetitive strain injuries
Electrical Hazards:
Faulty wiring
Overloaded power strips
Unsecured cables
Fire Safety:
Blocked fire exits
Inadequate fire extinguishers
Improper storage of flammable materials
Slips, Trips, and Falls:
Wet floors
Loose carpeting
Unmarked steps or thresholds
Workplace Stress:
High workload
Poor work-life balance
Lack of support from management
Industrial/Manufacturing Environment
Mechanical Hazards:
Unguarded machinery
Moving parts
Heavy lifting
Chemical Hazards:
Exposure to hazardous substances
Improper storage of chemicals
Inadequate ventilation
Noise Hazards:
High levels of industrial noise
Lack of hearing protection
Prolonged exposure to loud environments
Fire and Explosion:
Combustible dust
Flammable liquids
Electrical sparks
Workplace Accidents:
Forklift accidents
Falls from heights
Crushing injuries
Retail Environment
Customer Safety:
Wet floors
Cluttered aisles
Falling merchandise
Employee Safety:
Repetitive motion injuries
Strain from lifting heavy objects
Inadequate training
Security Risks:
Theft and shoplifting
Workplace violence
Inadequate surveillance
Fire Safety:
Blocked exits
Overloaded electrical circuits
Inadequate fire drills
Health Hazards:
Poor indoor air quality
Inadequate sanitation
Exposure to harmful cleaning chemicals
Construction Site
Fall Hazards:
Unprotected edges
Improper use of ladders
Scaffold collapses
Electrical Hazards:
Contact with overhead power lines
Improper grounding
Defective tools and equipment
Struck-By Hazards:
Falling objects
Vehicle and equipment strikes
Flying debris
Caught-In/Between Hazards:
Trench collapses
Machinery entanglement
Building collapses
Hazardous Materials:
Exposure to asbestos
Handling of hazardous chemicals
Lead-based paint
Continue making the workplace safe and compliant
In addition to our free Business Risk Assessment template, we offer a wide range of health and safety courses tailored to meet the needs of various workplaces. Our Health and Safety level 2 course is the perfect way to get staff up to speed on health and safety best practice and thus help protect your business against lawsuits. In addition, we offer a variety of other courses on COSHH Awareness, First Aid, Fire Safety, HACCP, or Manual Handling courses. All courses are 100% online, accredited by The CPD Group, and updated regularly to comply with UK safety regulations. Equip your staff with the essential skills to ensure a safe and compliant workplace. Explore our courses today and enhance your business’s safety protocols.
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Essential Food Hygiene Ltd
Accessibility Statement
essentialfoodhygiene.co.uk
September 16, 2024
Compliance status
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience,
regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level.
These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible
to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific
disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML,
adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Screen-reader and keyboard navigation
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with
screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive
a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements,
alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website.
In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels;
descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups),
and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag
for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology.
To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on
as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
Disability profiles supported in our website
Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments
Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over seven different coloring options.
Animations – person with epilepsy can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.
Browser and assistive technology compatibility
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Notes, comments, and feedback
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
