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Health and safety risk assessments

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All staff have obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) to:

  • eliminate risks to health and safety where possible
  • minimise risks as far as is reasonably practicable where eliminating them isn’t possible.

The Occupational Health and Safety Risk Management Procedures [2.30.01] outline our approach to managing health and safety risks at UQ, including responsibilities of staff, supervisors and heads of organisational units.

We use the UQSafe-Risk system to manage health and safety risk assessments.

When to complete a risk assessment

You must complete formal, written risk assessments for certain kinds of tasks, projects and changes.

When to complete a risk assessment (PDF, 98KB) outlines when formal documentation of risk management processes is required.

How to complete a risk assessment

Risk assessments must be completed by the person or people performing the tasks. Managers and supervisors are responsible for making sure this is done.

  1. Read when to complete a risk assessment (PDF, 98KB) to determine whether a formal risk assessment is required.
  2. Identify the hazards associated with the task or process.
  3. Discuss it with your supervisors.
  4. Complete a risk assessment in UQSafe-Risk (staff login required).
  5. Send the risk assessment for peer review to get feedback from colleagues or your Workplace Health and Safety Coordinator (WHSC).
  6. Submit the risk assessment to your supervisor for review and approval.

Approval and auditing

Supervisors must review risk assessments completed by their staff before approving them to make sure they provide correct and adequate information.

Workplace Health and Safety Coordinators (WHSC) or safety managers are required to regularly audit and review risk assessments with high or extreme risk ratings to ensure:

  • all risk sources have been identified
  • proposed treatments are current and effective.

The Health, Safety and Wellness Division periodically monitors a sample of risk assessments. They pay particular attention to risk assessments with high or extreme risk ratings.

Using the UQSafe-Risk system

See the UQSafe risk assessment guide (PDF, 352KB) for an overview of:

  • commonly used functions
  • fields included in risk assessments
  • risk assessment and approval process.

For help with:

Completing risk assessments for general tasks

Watch the video for a detailed guide to completing risk assessments for general tasks.

Completing risk assessments involving hazardous chemicals or biological materials

Watch the video for a detailed guide to completing risk assessments that involve hazardous chemicals or biological materials.

Peer reviewing risk assessments

Watch the video for instructions for:

  • inviting colleagues to peer review a risk assessment
  • conducting a peer review
  • viewing feedback.

Approving risk assessments

Watch the video for a step-by-step guide for supervisors approving risk assessments.

Auditing risk assessments

In UQSafe, auditing a risk assessment for quality is called a 'formal review'.

The auditing or formally reviewing risk assessments guide (PDF, 474KB) provides a checklist to help Workplace Health and Safety Coordinators (WHSC) audit a risk assessment.

Watch the video for a step-by-step guide to auditing a risk assessment in UQSafe.

Risk assessments before April 2017

Risk assessments completed before April 2017 may be located in the old UQ Risk Management Database.

You can access these risk assessments in ‘read-only’ format. You can't create new risk assessments in this system.

You’ll be able to access existing risk assessments in this system until 31 December 2018.

Related questions

Health, Safety and Wellness Division