All efforts made for managing health and safety evolve from the need to control risk. Only when we know the risks involved in our activities we could derive appropriate measure to reduce them to an acceptable level.

There are no fixed rules as to how risk assessment should be carried out. The assessment depends on the nature of the activities and the type and extent of the hazards and risk involved.

For relatively unchanging activities, the risk assessment performed need not be repeated every time someone is exposed to a hazard in similar circumstances. Similarly, for a number of broadly similar activities, it may be possible to have one "generic risk assessment" which is applicable to all risk, and then more detailed assessments can be made to take account of specific risks thereby enabling them to be controlled as and when they arise. For example, a generic risk assessment can be conducted to control the risk of working in a certain types of workplace or laboratory, whereas each Project Leader can augment this with specific risk assessments peculiar to the general circumstances.

The following principles should be observed when carrying out a risk assessment:

• Ensure that all relevant hazards and risks arising out of the work activities are addressed. Normally, hazards are identified first and then the risks are assessed.  Where there are relevant statutory provisions, these may also help identify the hazards.  Trivial risks can usually be ignored. Some of the risks may have been controlled in some ways. The effectiveness of these controls also needs to be reviewed in assessing the "residual risk".
• Consideration should also be given to non-routine operations such as maintenance and emergency situations.
• Ensure that all groups of employees, students and others who might be affected are considered, including office staff, maintenance staff, cleaners, non-office hours workers, security guards and visitors etc. Identify any group of workers who might be particularly at risk, for example, young inexperienced workers, solitary worker or staff with sensory or mobility impairment.

Appropriate "pro forma" can be developed to aid the risk assessment exercise and facilitate the recording of the findings.