How Often Should Risk Assessments Be Reviewed in the UK?

There is no single legal answer to "how often." UK law does not prescribe a fixed review interval — instead, it requires risk assessments to be reviewed whenever there's reason to believe they may no longer be valid. In practice, this means both scheduled periodic reviews and event-triggered reviews.

When UK law requires a review

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (Regulation 3) require employers to review risk assessments when:

• There is reason to suspect the assessment is no longer valid
• There has been a significant change in the work or workplace

This is deliberately broad. "Significant change" includes changes to equipment, materials, processes, personnel, premises, or working patterns. It also includes new information about hazards — for example, updated guidance from the HSE.

Trigger events that require immediate review

• An accident, incident, or near miss — any event that suggests a hazard wasn't adequately controlled
• New equipment or processes — introducing new plant, tools, materials, or working methods
• Changes to the workplace — new site, different layout, relocation, refurbishment
• New legislation or guidance — changes to regulations or HSE guidance affecting your work
• Changes to personnel — new employees, especially young workers or those with additional needs
• Feedback from workers — employees reporting new hazards or inadequate controls
• Enforcement action — any notice from HSE or local authority identifying failings

Best practice review frequencies

• Construction sites — review at the start of each new phase, when conditions change, or at minimum weekly for ongoing works
• Offices and low-risk workplaces — annual review is generally sufficient if no trigger events occur
• Manufacturing and industrial — at least every 6–12 months, or whenever processes change
• Task-specific RAMS — review for each new project or site. A RAMS from a previous project should never be reused without review and customisation.

What to check during a review

• Are the hazards still the same? Have any new ones emerged?
• Are the control measures still in place and working effectively?
• Have there been any incidents related to the assessed risks?
• Has anything changed that might affect the risk levels?
• Are the people listed as responsible still in those roles?
• Is the emergency information still accurate?

For a deeper understanding of what your risk assessments must contain, see UK risk assessment legal requirements. For construction-specific guidance, our guide on how to write a RAMS document covers review and version control in detail.

A risk assessment generator helps streamline the review process by providing a structured format that makes it easy to compare current conditions against previous assessments. See also our simple risk assessment example for a practical reference.

Create your RAMS instantly with Riskora →