‘The butcher’s cart and the postman’s bicycle’: risk and employers’ liability

Risk, of course, is not the same as hazard.2 The British Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 attempt to give a definition of the distinction:

(a) a hazard is something with the potential to cause harm (this can include articles, substances, plant or machines, methods of work, the working environment and other aspects of work organisation);

(b) a risk is the likelihood of potential harm from that hazard being realised. The extent of the risk will depend on:

(i) the likelihood of that harm occurring; (ii) the potential severity of that harm . . .; and (iii) the population which might be affected by the hazard, i.e. the

number of people who might be exposed.3