Baseline risk assessment for construction
Under the Construction Regulations 2014, the baseline risk assessment is the client's assessment of the hazards of an intended construction project, made before design and tender. The client's health and safety specification is based on it, and every contractor's own risk assessments for its work, required by regulation 9, build on that specification. Clients often ask contractors for a baseline risk assessment of their scope too.
Contractors' risk assessments must be done by a competent person appointed in writing, before the work starts and while it continues, and they form part of the contractor's health and safety plan.
SafetyFileBuilder drafts the risk assessment from your approved scope of work and method statements, in the client's format (for example HIRA or WRAC), for your competent person to check and sign.
By the SafetyFileBuilder team · Checked against the law on
What the Construction Regulations 2014 say
“prepare a baseline risk assessment for an intended construction work project”
“prepare a suitable, sufficiently documented and coherent site specific health and safety specification for the intended construction work based on the baseline risk assessment”
“A contractor must, before the commencement of any construction work and during such construction work, have risk assessments performed by a competent person appointed in writing, which risk assessments form part of the health and safety plan to be applied on the site”
What a contractor's risk assessment must include (regulation 9(1))
- The identification of the risks and hazards to which persons may be exposed
- An analysis and evaluation of those risks and hazards, based on a documented method
- A documented plan and safe work procedures to mitigate, reduce or control them
- A monitoring plan
- A review plan
Every client is different: the AI works from your client's own list.
Also called
baseline risk assessment · BRA · HIRA · WRAC · risk assessment for construction work
Your responsibility
SafetyFileBuilder helps you compile and keep your documents. It does not give legal or safety advice: check the requirements that apply where you work, and a competent person checks and signs what the AI drafts.
How to prepare it
- Start from the client's baseline risk assessment and health and safety specification.
- List your activities from the approved scope of work and method statements.
- For each, identify the hazards, rate the risk with a documented method, and set the controls.
- Add how you will monitor the controls and when you will review the assessment.
- Have your competent person, appointed in writing, sign it, and train your people on it before work starts.
How SafetyFileBuilder helps
- Start a projectName the job. The AI asks where the work is and who the client is.
- Upload the client's requirementsTheir index, checklist or contractor standard. The AI sets up the headings to match.
- Add your documentsCertificates, medicals, licences, insurance, policies. The AI reads them, files each under the right heading and notes expiry dates.
- Let the AI draft the restScope of work, method statements and risk assessments, written for this job, for a competent person to check and sign.
- Hand it in, keep it currentDownload the finished file in the client's order. You're told before anything runs out.
No subscription: start with 100 free AI credits; your company, people, certificates and files are free to keep, and you buy more AI credits from US$5 and pay only for what the AI does. Available in 18 languages.
Questions
Who prepares the baseline risk assessment?
The client, for the whole project (regulation 5(1)(a)). Contractors prepare risk assessments for their own work (regulation 9), and clients often call that a baseline risk assessment of the contractor's scope.
What is the difference between a baseline and a task risk assessment?
A baseline risk assessment looks at the hazards of the whole project or scope; a task (issue-based) risk assessment looks at one task or change, often done on site before the work.
Is a HIRA or WRAC the same thing?
They are formats for the same job: HIRA (hazard identification and risk assessment) and WRAC (workplace risk assessment and control) are what many clients call their risk assessment template.
More for the same file
- Contractor health and safety file: what goes in it and how to build one (South Africa: construction, mines, plants and factories)
- Section 16(2) appointment letter (16.2 appointment) (South Africa: OHS Act section 16(2))
- MHSA regulation 2.9.2 appointment (South Africa: mines (MHSA regulation 2.9.2))
- COIDA letter of good standing (South Africa: Compensation Fund (COIDA))
- Annexure 3 medical certificate of fitness (South Africa: Construction Regulations 2014)
- Section 37(2) agreement (mandatary agreement) (South Africa: OHS Act section 37(2))