Unit 3: The Risk Assessment Process in Practice

2. 3.2 Risk assessment level 2: task based

In addition to the general requirements under the ISM Code, the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Health and Safety at Work) Regulations 1997 require that a suitable and sufficient assessment shall be made of the risks to the occupational health and safety of seafarers arising in the normal course of their activities or duties.

There are vessel- and task-specific risk assessments that must be carried out on board each vessel. Whilst it is clear that the Company can assess the generic risk of, for example, working at height, working with electricity, movement about ship, etc., it is not possible for them to conduct a risk assessment for changing a navigation light bulb up the main mast on a given vessel on a given day because they would not be able to take into account all the factors that were applicable at that time on that vessel. For this reason, it is essential that any generic risk assessments are used in context, and not seen as being suitable for specific tasks. For this, task-based risk assessments should be carried out on board each vessel by those involved in the work.

Two distinct types of task-based risk assessments may be used. First, a range of vessel-specific generic task-based risk assessments that can be used for all routine and low-risk tasks can be developed. These should be periodically reviewed, but frequency would very much depend on the particular circumstances on the vessel and the level of risk.

The second type of task-based risk assessments would be used for specific high-risk jobs that are not routine, such as working aloft or enclosed space entry. These should relate to the specific persons who will be involved in the work and valid only for the duration of that job.

In both cases, the assessments should be carried out by a competent person or persons who understand the work being assessed. It is also preferable that seafarers who will be involved in the work should also be involved in the assessment process.