ABSTRACT
The requirement to carry out risk assessments in the UK first appeared in the 1990 Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) regulations and subsequently in the 1992 Management of Health and Safety at Work. Concerns about the risk assessment processes have been voiced by a colleague who audits management systems on an international level. It is reasonable to have a systematic approach to assessing risk; it provides a structure upon which to base the rest of the risk reduction activity. Every employer shall ensure that work is not carried out at height where it is reasonably practicable to carry out the work safely otherwise than at height. The word 'foreseeable' does; however, appear in H&S criminal prosecutions. Although it does not appear in the 1974 Act the phrase 'reasonably foreseeable' does appear in UK law but it is in civil law not criminal law.
