A general risk assessment is the one document that covers what every job shares: driving to site, manual handling, hand and power tools, the office, lone working, welfare, first aid. It is written once, reviewed annually, and referenced by every task assessment so they do not repeat it. What it never does is replace the task assessment, because the site's own hazards are found on the site's walk. The HSE's guidance, cited below, gives risk assessment as five steps: identify hazards, assess the risks, control the risks, record your findings, review the controls, and says that if you employ 5 or more people you must record your significant findings. The risk assessment template on this site prints either, free and without an account.
What it covers
The activities common to the business rather than a job: vehicles, manual handling, tools and their inspection under PUWER, the office, lone working, welfare, first aid, the display screen. Each with its rows, controls and residual risk.
What it does not cover
The site's services, ground, height, plant, interfaces and public, which differ by site and are the task assessment's. A general assessment used as the site assessment is the generic RAMS the site manager returns.
How the two relate
The task assessment references the general one for the shared activities and adds the site's own rows. The method statement applies both. Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, cited below, requires every employer to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees, and regulation 3(6) requires an employer with five or more employees to record the significant findings and any group of employees especially at risk.
Review
Annually, and when the business changes, a new vehicle or a new tool; the task assessments on their own cycle. DailyLogDesk Pro keeps the general assessment with the task assessments that reference it; the template prints them. From the vendors' own pricing pages, cited below: SafetyCulture lists its Premium plan at $29 per seat per month billed monthly or $24 billed annually, with a free plan for small teams; Contractor Foreman lists its Basic plan at $49 per month for one user. DailyLogDesk Pro is $29 per month for the whole site team.
Questions people ask about general risk assessment
Can a general risk assessment be bought?
A template can; the business's own activities, vehicles and tools are what it has to list.
Should the crew sign the general assessment?
At induction, with the handbook; the task assessment is signed per task.
Is the template free?
Yes, without an account.