What’s in This Risk Assessment Template?
It’s a blank, ready-to-use risk assessment form for UK workplaces, built around the same columns the HSE uses. You get:
- an assessment details block (who, where, when, and the next review date);
- the risk assessment table, with four example rows for a small office and blank rows for your own hazards;
- a short “how to use” guide;
- a review log and a record of which staff have been briefed.
It works for offices, shops, workshops, small warehouses and most other low to medium-risk workplaces. If your supervisors fill these in regularly, our online risk assessment training shows them how to do it well. Preview the full template below, then download the editable Word and Excel files.
Free template
Risk Assessment Template
A blank risk assessment form laid out in the HSE's five-step format, with worked example rows, for small and medium-sized UK businesses to record their significant findings.
Preview
Assessment details
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Company name | |
| Site or address | |
| Area, task or activity assessed | |
| Assessment carried out by (name and role) |
+ 4 more rows in the full template
How to use this template
- Walk round the workplace and talk to the people who do the work. List the things that could cause harm in the first column, one hazard per row.
- For each hazard, write down who could be hurt (staff, visitors, contractors, the public, anyone especially at risk such as young workers or new and expectant mothers) and what kind of injury or ill health could happen.
- Record the precautions already in place, then decide whether they are enough. If not, write the extra action in the fourth column, with a named person and a date.
- Delete the example rows (they start with "Example:") and replace them with your own. Keep the language plain, so anyone reading it knows what to do.
- Share the findings with your workers, tick the Done column when each action is complete, and keep the form somewhere people can find it.
- Review it when something significant changes (new equipment, people, premises or processes), after an accident or near miss, and at regular intervals. Note each review in the review log.
- If you employ five or more people, the law requires you to record the significant findings. Under five, writing it down is still the simplest way to show what you have done. In England and Wales, your separate fire risk assessment must be recorded whatever the size of the business.
Also in the full template
- Risk assessment
- Review log
- Findings shared with staff
Do You Have to Write a Risk Assessment Down?
Every employer has to assess the risks in their work. Writing it down is a legal requirement once you employ five or more people: regulation 3(6) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 says you must record the significant findings, and any group of employees identified as especially at risk.
With fewer than five employees, there’s no duty to record your general risk assessment. It’s still worth doing. Fire is the exception: in England and Wales, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 has required the fire risk assessment to be recorded since 1 October 2023, whatever the size of the business. A written assessment is the easiest way to show an inspector, insurer or client what you’ve done, and it gives your team something to follow.
“Significant findings” means the hazards that could cause real harm, who they affect and what you’re doing about them. You don’t need to record trivial risks.
How to Fill In Each Column
The template is the record for step 4 of the HSE’s method. If you haven’t been through the other steps yet, start with our guide to the 5 steps to risk assessment. Then fill in one row per hazard.
What Are the Hazards?
List the things that could cause harm: vehicles, ladders, chemicals, heavy boxes, display screens, electrical equipment, stress. Be specific. “Slips and trips” is fine as a heading, but add what causes them in your workplace, such as “trailing cables at the hot desks”.
Who Might Be Harmed and How?
Name groups of people, not individuals, and say what could happen to them. “Warehouse staff could injure their backs lifting cartons from the bottom shelf” is far more useful than “staff”. Include visitors, contractors and cleaners, and anyone more at risk, such as young workers or new and expectant mothers.
What Are You Already Doing to Control the Risks?
Write down the precautions already in place. Most businesses are doing more than they think. This column shows the reader what’s expected and stops anyone removing a control without realising why it’s there.
What Further Action Do You Need to Take?
Compare what you’re doing with good practice. If there’s more you could reasonably do, write it here. Work down the hierarchy of control: remove the hazard if you can, then substitute, then engineer it out, then change the way people work, and only then rely on PPE.
Who Needs to Carry Out the Action? When Is It Needed By?
Put a name or a role against every action, and a date. Actions without an owner don’t get done. Deal with the most serious risks first.
Done
Tick or date it when the action is complete. When every row is done, the assessment reflects how you actually work.
A Completed Example: A Small Office
Picture a six-person office on the first floor of a shared building, with a small kitchen and a store room. The template’s four example rows cover the main hazards: slips and trips, display screen equipment, fire, and carrying deliveries upstairs. Here are two more rows the office manager might add after walking round and talking to the team.
| What are the hazards? | Who might be harmed and how? | Already doing | Further action | Who | When | Done |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical equipment (kettle, heaters, chargers, extension leads) | Staff could get an electric shock or burns from damaged plugs or leads; overloaded sockets could start a fire | Staff told to report damaged equipment; no personal heaters allowed | Visual check of plugs and leads every three months; replace daisy-chained extension leads with a fixed socket | Office manager | Next month | |
| Hot water in the kitchen | Staff could be scalded when carrying hot drinks or using the boiling water tap | Boiling water tap has a child lock | Add a lidded mug rule for drinks carried to desks; brief new starters at induction | Office manager | This week |
Notice that the rows are short, plain and specific to this office. Anyone joining the team could read them and know what to do. Because the office has six employees, writing these findings down is a legal requirement, not just good practice.
The display screen row in the template also points to a separate workstation assessment. Some hazards need their own specific assessment under their own regulations, such as hazardous substances under COSHH (see What Is COSHH?) and heavy lifting under the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992.
Photo: Babur Yakar on Unsplash
Tips for a Risk Assessment People Actually Use
- Fill it in with your team, not for them. The people doing the work know the hazards best, and they’re more likely to follow controls they helped choose.
- Delete the example rows. Leaving them in suggests nobody looked at the form.
- Keep one assessment per area or activity if your work varies a lot, rather than one long list for everything.
- Share it. Brief everyone affected and record it in the “findings shared with staff” table.
- Review it when something significant changes, after an accident or near miss, and at a set date, and note it in the review log.
What to Do Next
This week, download the template, walk round with one or two of your team, and fill in a row for each significant hazard, with a name and a date against every action. Then put the review date in the diary.
If the people completing your assessments have never been trained in the method, our risk assessment training is a CPD-accredited online course that covers the five steps, the hierarchy of control and how to record findings people will follow.