Construction risk assessment template

Adapt this to the actual job and the actual site. It does not replace competent advice. HSE says not to copy an example and put your company name on it, because that would not satisfy the law and would not protect your employees.

The PDF is the printable version. You can read and copy the words below without the file.

The blank

RISK ASSESSMENT

Trading name: [trading name]
Your name: [your name]
Job: [one line, this job only]
Site address: [address]
Where on site: [room, elevation, or the part of the site this sheet covers]
Date assessed: [date]
Assessed by: [name of the person who walked the job]
People consulted: [the people doing the work, or "I am doing this job myself"]

Copy the five blocks once for each hazard. One hazard per block. A second hazard gets a second block, not a longer sentence in the first.

1. IDENTIFY THE HAZARDS
Hazard: [what could cause harm]
Where on this job: [the place you saw it]
How you found it: [walk-round, the people doing the work, a non-routine task such as cleaning, or an earlier accident or near miss]
Health as well as injury: [dust, a substance, a manual-handling strain, or "none beyond the injury above"]

2. WHO MIGHT BE HARMED AND HOW
Who: [people doing the work, another trade, a visitor, the customer, a child in the house, a member of the public]
How: [how they would be hurt or made ill]
Particular requirements: [young worker, new or expectant mother, new to this job, a disability that changes the control, or "none on this job"]

3. EVALUATE THE RISKS AND DECIDE ON CONTROLS
What you already do: [controls that will actually be on this site]
Can you get rid of the hazard: [yes, and how / no, and why the work still has to happen]
If not, how you will make harm unlikely: [redesign the job, replace the material or the tool, change the order of work, then the practical measures]
Further action still needed: [what is not in place yet]
Who will do it: [name]
By when: [date, or before the task starts]
PPE, and only after the controls above: [what is worn, who it fits, and why the other controls are not enough on their own]

4. RECORD YOUR FINDINGS
Significant findings: [the hazard, who might be harmed and how, and what you are doing to control the risks]
Where this record is kept: [on site, with the job file, or both]
Who is briefed before work starts: [names or roles]
This record is not the control. The control is what happens on site.

5. REVIEW THE CONTROLS
Review if the controls may no longer work.
Review if the staff, the process, the substances, or the equipment change.
Review if someone reports a problem, or there is an accident or a near miss.
What changed: [write it when you review]
Record updated by: [name and date]

Hazard: dust from sanding plaster.
Who: the person sanding, and the occupier.
How: breathing the dust. HSE says regularly breathing construction dust can cause lung cancer, asthma, COPD, and silicosis.
Already in place: the occupier stays out of the room, and the sander only runs with extraction on it.
Further action: damp or vacuum the dust. Do not sweep it dry. If the work starts cutting masonry, brick, tile, or concrete, stop. That dust is not the same control as gypsum. The silica dust talk is the one to read before you pick the unit.
PPE: RPE that fits the person sanding, as well as the extraction, not instead of it.
Review: if a child is now in the house, or the ceiling turns out to be a different board, stop and write the change down.

Wording checked against the HSE pages above on 20 October 2026.