ABSTRACT

This chapter points out that the term ‘safe system of work’ is used as a general description of three different categories of risk control, which are based on attempts to get people to carry out work activities in a particular way. The three categories are:

safe work procedures – ways of carrying out hazardous tasks in a way that minimises the risks associated with the tasks’ hazards, these procedures take the form of written descriptions of how work should be carried out;

permit to work procedures – a method of making hazardous tasks less of a risk by specifying procedures to be followed that will address the hazards associated with the task;

safety rules – lists of dos and don’ts that are mainly used for highly variable tasks such as using ladders or driving forklift trucks, where it is impossible to specify, in a safe work procedure, all the possible types of task that may have to be done.

The chapter deals in detail with each of these categories.