Risk Assessment Examples UK — Construction
By the Riskora Editorial Team · Reviewed against our editorial standards · Last reviewed
Understanding what a good risk assessment looks like is the first step to creating one. Here's a breakdown of the structure, content, and quality expected for UK construction risk assessments — with practical examples across common trades.
UK (RAMS) example document — Two-Storey Rear Extension — 14 Birchwood Lane, Reading. Client: Mr & Mrs A. Whitfield (Private Client). Site: 14 Birchwood Lane, Reading, RG1 5JT. Scope: Construction of a two-storey rear extension (6.4m × 4.2m) to an existing semi-detached dwelling. Works comprise breaking out of existing rear elevation, trench-fill foundations to 1.0m, traditional cavity blockwork to first floor, pre-stressed concrete lintels, timber roof structure with natural slate finish, plus alterations to existing rear wall to form structural opening with rolled steel joist (RSJ 203×102 UB23). Works programmed over 9 weeks with a peak site team of 6 operatives. Hazards assessed: Manual handling — blocks, lintels, plasterboard, Working at height — independent scaffold & roof structure, Buried services strike during excavation, Collapse of excavation / trench wall, Hand-arm vibration (HAVS) — breaking out, drilling, Silica dust — cutting blocks, brick, concrete, Vehicle/pedestrian segregation — narrow domestic street.
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What does a UK construction risk assessment look like?
A UK construction risk assessment includes: the activity being assessed, hazards identified, who is at risk, a risk rating using a likelihood × severity matrix, existing control measures, additional controls needed, and a residual risk rating. It should be specific to the actual work and site conditions.
Examples Are Useful — But They're Not Your Risk Assessment
Studying examples helps you understand the format and depth expected. But a risk assessment copied from another project doesn't reflect your specific site conditions, work methods, or team. The HSE expects assessments to be 'suitable and sufficient' for the actual work being done. Many professionals are unsure about the legal requirements for safety documentation.
How Riskora Helps
Riskora generates risk assessments specific to your project using a guided builder. Pre-loaded hazard libraries ensure you cover the right risks for your trade, while the structured output meets UK expectations for quality and completeness. Try the RAMS generator to see how quickly you can produce professional documentation.
Who it's for
- General building work
- Roofing and height work
- Excavation near services
- Demolition activities
- Confined space entry
- Working near water
Understand the Fundamentals
Before you generate your document, these guides cover the knowledge that underpins every good RAMS, risk assessment, and method statement.
UK Legal Requirements for Risk Assessments
What the law requires for risk assessments under MHSWR 1999 and when they must be recorded.
RAMS vs Risk Assessment
When a standalone risk assessment is enough and when you need a full RAMS document.
How to Write a RAMS Document
If your risk assessment needs to be part of a RAMS, this guide covers the full structure.
What Is a RAMS Document?
Learn how risk assessments fit within the RAMS framework used across UK construction.
RAMS vs Risk Assessment — Key Differences
When you need a full RAMS versus a standalone risk assessment, and how the two documents work together.
Construction Safety Documents Explained
An overview of the key safety documents required on UK construction sites and how they relate to each other.
What are the 5 steps of a risk assessment?
The HSE's five-step approach: 1) Identify hazards, 2) Decide who might be harmed and how, 3) Evaluate risks and decide on precautions, 4) Record significant findings, 5) Review and update regularly.
What hazards should a construction risk assessment cover?
Common construction hazards include: falls from height, struck by objects, collapse of structures, contact with services (electricity, gas), manual handling injuries, exposure to dust and substances, noise and vibration, and vehicle movements on site.
Key Risks and Considerations
- •Copying assessments from unrelated projects
- •Missing site-specific hazards
- •Using outdated control measure information
- •Failing to consult workers who do the actual work
What UK Law Actually Says
Direct quotes from the named regulations, with plain-English explanations of what each one means in practice.
Regulation 3, Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
“Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and the risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking.”
Reg 3 is the source of the 'suitable and sufficient' test. The examples below are useful as a structural reference but cannot themselves be 'suitable and sufficient' for your site — only an assessment of the actual work being done by the actual people doing it can clear that bar.
Read the source on legislation.gov.uk →Regulation 13, Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
“Every contractor must plan, manage and monitor construction work carried out either by the contractor or by workers under the control of the contractor, in a way which ensures that, so far as is reasonably practicable, it is carried out without risks to health and safety.”
For construction work the example risk assessment must form part of the contractor's wider planning, management and monitoring duty — a copied-from-the-internet template fails the 'plan and manage' test the first time an inspector asks how it was tailored to this job.
Read the source on legislation.gov.uk →The Numbers Behind the Risk
Why this matters — the most recent published figures from the Health and Safety Executive and ONS.
1.7 million working people
Suffering from a work-related illness in 2023/24. The headline justification for taking risk-assessment examples seriously is that most preventable harm shows up in assessments that were copied rather than written.
Source: HSE — Health and safety at work statistics 2023/24 →138 worker fatalities
Work-related fatal injuries to workers in Great Britain, 2023/24. Falls from height, struck-by-moving-object and contact with machinery dominate the figures — precisely the hazards the example structures below are designed to catch on construction sites.
Source: HSE — Workplace fatal injuries 2023/24 →Worked example: re-roofing a two-storey domestic property
Scope. Strip and re-felt 95m² of pitched tile roof on a two-storey end-of-terrace house. 8m ridge height, eaves at 5.4m, single 6m alley to the side. Crew of three (one approved roofer, one labourer, one apprentice). Skip on the front drive, public footpath running directly under the eaves.
Hazards captured. Falls from height (working at the eaves and ridge), falling materials onto the public footpath, manual handling of tiles up the scaffold, exposure to old roofing felt (potential bitumen / fibre content pre-2000), slip hazards on the working platform, lone access by the apprentice up the inside ladder, and weather-driven instability if wind gusts exceed 23mph.
Controls in the assessment. Independent scaffold with double guard rails and toeboards (designed by competent scaffolder, handed over with tag), edge protection at eaves and ridge, debris netting on the public-footpath side plus a banksman during tile strip, mechanical hoist for tiles above 20kg/lift, asbestos refurbishment survey reviewed before strip, anemometer on site with explicit stop-work threshold (23mph mean / 36mph gusts), and a documented site-specific rescue plan if a fall-arrest harness is deployed at the chimney.
Why it would pass review. Each hazard is named with the actual scenario (not 'work at height — wear PPE'), each control is testable (you can stand on site and tick whether the toeboards are in place), the residual-risk rating is justified, and the document names the competent reviewer with a date. That is what 'suitable and sufficient' looks like in practice.
Common Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
1. Using an example word-for-word as your own risk assessment
Why it fails: An assessment that doesn't reflect the actual site, crew, plant or weather is not 'suitable and sufficient' under MHSWR 1999 reg 3 — and is the first thing an HSE inspector or principal contractor reviewer will spot.
Fix: Use examples to learn the structure. Then re-write each hazard and control to describe your real job, your real crew and your real site constraints.
2. Listing hazards generically ('working at height')
Why it fails: Generic hazards drive generic controls ('wear PPE'), and generic controls are unenforceable on site. Reviewers reject these because they prove nothing about what will actually happen.
Fix: Name the scenario ('working at the eaves of a 5.4m two-storey roof'), then the control ('independent scaffold with toeboards, eaves edge protection, debris netting over public footpath').
3. No residual risk rating after controls
Why it fails: Without a residual rating the reviewer can't see whether your controls are proportionate, and you have no audit trail showing why you accepted the remaining risk.
Fix: Score likelihood × severity twice — before and after controls — and only proceed if the residual sits in the green / low band, or document the additional measures for amber.
4. No named reviewer or review date
Why it fails: MHSWR reg 3(3) requires assessments to be reviewed if circumstances change. Without a named reviewer and date the document can't be defended as 'live'.
Fix: Every assessment names the competent person who signed it off and the next review date. Software keeps that audit trail automatically; PDF documents usually don't.
Worked examples — preview & download real Riskora-generated docs
Below are four worked examples rendered live from Riskora's document engine — the same engine signed-up customers use. Switch tabs to see a full RAMS, toolbox talk, site induction and COSHH assessment. Download the RAMS as a PDF (no account required) to inspect the structure, hazard register, risk matrix, method statement and sign-off block in detail.
Default — 4 of 12 available · Full version
Generated live in your browser from the same engine signed-up users use — no account required. Your details never leave the page.
Three short risk assessment examples (UK construction)
1) Cable pulling in an occupied office (electrical). Hazards: contact with energised cabling, slips on cable drums in walkways, working at height on lightweight stepladders above suspended ceiling tiles, manual handling of cable drums. Key controls: documented permit-to-work with isolation point and lock-out tag, exclusion zone with floor-stand barriers and signage in the affected corridor, Class 1 fibreglass stepladders inspected on the day, two-person lift for drums >25kg. Residual: low.
2) Service trench in a domestic front garden (groundworks). Hazards: trench collapse in mixed made-ground, strike of unmarked services, falls into the trench by pedestrians, vibration exposure for the operator. Key controls: CAT & Genny scan plus utility plans reviewed pre-dig, hand-dig the first 600mm, trench boxes for any depth >1.2m, pedestrian heras barrier with covered walkway, HAVS exposure tracked against the daily action value. Residual: low/medium.
3) Hot works on a flat felt roof (roofing). Hazards: fire ignition on built-up felt, fume inhalation, falls from the perimeter edge, hot bitumen burns. Key controls: hot-works permit issued daily and signed off, 60-minute fire watch after last torch use, two 9kg dry powder extinguishers within 6m, edge protection on all sides, supplied-air respirator if working in confined parapet detail. Residual: low.
These are illustrative — they show the expected level of specificity for a UK construction risk assessment. The numbers, distances, equipment names and crew details are the difference between a real assessment and a template that gets rejected.
What reviewers (PCs, CHAS, HSE) look for first
- Is the activity described specifically? Not 'electrical works' but 'second-fix lighting circuits in the ground-floor open-plan office, ceiling height 2.7m'.
- Is the risk matrix legend present? Without the legend the scoring is meaningless to anyone but the author.
- Are residual ratings shown? Pre-controls and post-controls — both, on every hazard line.
- Is there a named competent reviewer? With sign-off date and a defined review trigger.
- Does the PPE list match the controls? If 'edge protection' is the control, the PPE schedule should not be relying on a harness as the primary measure.
Key Features
- Hazard identification prompts
- Likelihood × severity matrix
- Pre-loaded control measures
- PPE requirement mapping
- Professional document output
- Reusable across similar projects
Example Structure (UK Standard)
- Task: Installing roof tiles on a two-storey domestic property
- Hazard: Falls from height (working at roof level)
- Who at risk: Roofers, helpers, passers-by below
- Risk rating: Likelihood 3 × Severity 5 = 15 (High)
- Controls: Edge protection, harness system, exclusion zone below
- Residual risk: Likelihood 1 × Severity 5 = 5 (Low)
- Review: Before each phase of work
Common Questions Before Getting Started
Will this take long?
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All documents generated by Riskora should be reviewed by a competent person before use on site. Riskora provides structured templates — professional judgement is always required.
What your RAMS actually contains
Riskora builds a structured, client-facing document — not a generic AI paragraph. Every section is shaped around your job, your site and your team.
Hazards
Task-specific hazards for the job, captured row by row — not a generic list pulled from an old RAMS.
Controls
Control measures mapped to each hazard with residual risk scoring after controls are applied.
PPE
PPE requirements tied to the activity and site, ready to brief to the team.
Method steps
Step-by-step method statement structured around how the work is actually sequenced on site.
Emergency arrangements
First aid, rescue plan, emergency contacts and site-specific escalation routes.
COSHH prompts
Substance prompts when the work involves chemicals, dusts, fumes or sealants — flagged early, not missed at review.
Sign-off
Operative sign-off captured against the document — names, dates and acknowledgement of the brief.
Version history
Every change tracked so you can show what was issued, when, and which version the team signed.
Approval status
Clear approval state on every document — draft, in review, approved, issued — visible across the team.
Audit trail
Who created it, who reviewed it, who signed it. A complete trail you can hand to a principal contractor or auditor.
From copied-and-pasted to site-specific
The reason RAMS get rejected is rarely the format — it's that the document is obviously generic. Riskora rebuilds it around this job, this site and this task.
Generic template copied from an old job.
- • Hazards and controls that don't match this site or task.
- • Method steps written for a different sequence of work.
- • No emergency arrangements specific to the location.
- • Client flags it as generic and asks for a rewrite.
Site-specific document structured around this job, site and task.
- • Hazards captured from the actual scope you pasted in.
- • Method steps sequenced for how the work runs on site.
- • Emergency arrangements and rescue plan tied to the location.
- • Approved internally, briefed to the team, signed off and stored.
From job details to signed-off document
A four-step workflow used by contractors, consultants and safety teams to turn informal job details into client-ready safety paperwork.
- 1Paste job details
Drop in a client email, a WhatsApp from the site manager, a scope of works or a tender note. Anything that describes the job.
- 2Riskora structures the document
Riskora turns your brief into hazards, controls, method steps, PPE, emergency arrangements and COSHH prompts.
- 3Review, edit and download
You stay in control of every section. Tweak anything, then download a clean PDF or share a link.
- 4Brief the team and record sign-off
Brief operatives, capture their sign-off and keep a full audit trail of who signed which version.
Built by people who've written this paperwork on real sites
Riskora is built by a founder with hands-on site and document experience — designed for contractors, consultants and safety teams who need to issue, brief and prove safety paperwork without losing a day to admin.
- Built for contractors, consultants and teams
Solo trades, principal contractors and in-house safety teams all run on the same workflow. - Supports multiple countries
UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, US and Canada — wording and document types match the local standard. - Not just documents
Sign-off, approvals, version history and an audit trail — the management workflow around the paperwork.
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References & Further Reading
Primary UK sources covering the legal and practical framework behind RAMS, risk assessments and method statements.
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Final RAMS must be reviewed and approved by a competent person before use.
Riskora is an assistive document preparation tool. All documents generated must be reviewed, verified, and approved by a competent person before use on site. Riskora does not replace professional safety judgment, and no output should be treated as a legal compliance guarantee.