The underlying reasons for carrying out a risk assessment, as legislated for under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, are:

• To take a fresh and detailed look at your workplace and work activities
• To draw up a list of all the known hazards associated with that workplace or work activity
• To find out whether it is possible to eliminate any of those hazards completely
• To evaluate your existing controls for effectiveness
• To determine the current level of risk associated with those various hazards taking into account control measures

The assessment will help you identify if any additional controls are needed in order to reduce the risk to an acceptable level.