Site Risk Assessment Checklist: What It Should Actually Contain

A site risk assessment checklist has one job: make sure the person walking the site looks at everything, in an order they can hold in their head, and writes down what they find. Most of the ones that reach my desk are arranged the way the safety management system is filed, not the way a person moves through a site.

So here is one arranged the way you walk: boundary, then the work, then the arrangements around it, then the people. Lift it and cut what does not apply. Then read the two sections after it, because the judgement about how to use a checklist is the one thing a checklist cannot give you.

Start at the Boundary: Access, Ground, and Work at Height.

Everything here is what the Construction Work Code of Practice calls the workplace itself: its location, layout, condition, and accessibility.¹ It is also the part of a site that changes weekly.

Access and egress.

• Vehicle and pedestrian entries separated, signed, and used as intended.
• A lit, clear path from the gate to the work face that avoids plant operating zones.
• Every exit unobstructed, including the ones nobody uses.
• Who secures the gate after hours, and how.

The ground and the working surfaces.

• Penetrations, voids, and lift wells covered or guarded, with covers fixed down and marked.
• Fragile and brittle surfaces identified: cement sheet roofs, fibreglass roofing, skylights, and unprotected formwork decks.¹
• Leads, hoses, offcuts, and starter bars, which is most of what people trip on.
• Any surface that changes underfoot when it rains.

Work at height.

• Scaffold tagged, current, complete, and not modified since the tag was signed.
• Edge protection continuous, including the gap someone opened to land materials.
• Ladders used for access, not as a work platform.
• Anything overhead that can fall: tools, debris, and equipment.¹

Then the Energy: Plant, Electricity, Chemicals, and Confined Spaces.

Plant and mobile plant.

• Registration and pre-start records for the plant here today, not the plant that was here last month.
• The operator holds the high risk work licence the machine needs, and it has not expired.
• Exclusion zones marked and observed, with a spotter wherever the operator’s view is blocked.
• Quick hitches, attachments, and guarding in place and pinned.

Electrical.

• Test and tag current on every lead, tool, and board.
• Residual current devices on site power, tested, with the test written down.
• Overhead and underground services located and marked, with the plans on site.
• Temporary boards protected from water and from vehicle strike.

Hazardous chemicals and dangerous goods.

• A register that matches what is physically in the store, in both directions.
• Safety data sheets on site, under 5 years old, and readable by the people using the product.
• Segregation, bunding, and a spill kit near where the product is used.
• Labelling on every decanted container.

Confined spaces.

• Entries identified and signed before anyone needs to go near one.
• A permit, an atmospheric test, a standby person, and a rescue plan that does not depend on the fire brigade arriving in time.
• The WHS Regulations require a risk assessment for entry into a confined space, so this one is not a judgement call.²

Then the Ground Opened Up: Excavation, Handling, Noise, and Dust.

Excavation and trenching.

• Services proven before the machine starts, not simply marked on a plan.
• Benching, battering, or shoring chosen by someone competent, and matching the ground actually exposed.
• Spoil set back from the edge, and access in and out at sensible intervals.
• Trench collapse is on the code’s own list of construction hazards, and it gives no warning.¹

Manual handling.

• Where materials land, and how far they are then carried by hand.
• Repetitive tasks, because the same movement for 4 hours is a hazard a walk-around rarely sees.
• Lifting aids available, and being used rather than parked.

Noise and dust.

• Silica: cutting, grinding, and drilling controlled with water or on-tool extraction.
• Noise sources and who stands near them, with hearing protection as the last control rather than the first.
• Welding fumes, gases, and arcs.¹

Then the Arrangements: Amenities, First Aid, Emergencies, Traffic, and Weather.

On a construction project, meaning one where 5 or more people are likely to be working at the same time, the principal contractor must have arrangements covering facilities, first aid, emergency plans, PPE, airborne contaminants, hazardous atmospheres, flammable storage, falls, and falling objects. They do not remove the same duties from every other business on site.¹

Amenities and first aid.

• Toilets, drinking water, and somewhere to eat, clean and stocked.
• Kit contents checked against the register, and the register signed.
• Which trained first aiders are rostered today, and whether one is on site now.

Emergency arrangements.

• The plan on the wall matches the site as it stands, after the last three weeks of work.
• Assembly point reachable without crossing a plant zone.
• After-hours contacts posted where a subcontractor can find them.¹
• Somebody has tested it, not just written it.

Traffic and pedestrian separation.

• Physical separation, not a painted line, wherever a person and a machine share ground.
• A traffic management plan that matches today’s site, not the tender.
• Delivery, loading, and waste areas, and what happens when two trucks arrive at once.¹

Weather and environment.

• Heat, cold, and UV, and what specifically changes when it hits 38 degrees.
• Wind limits for cranes and for anything lifted or sheeted.
• Rain: what the ground does, what the excavation does, and where the water goes.

Last, the People On Site and Whether They Should Be There.

A checklist that covers everything above and stops there has inspected the place and not the people, which is the half that gets a business in trouble.

• Everyone carrying out construction work has completed general construction induction training and holds a white card. If they trained more than 2 years ago and have not done construction work since, the business must not let them work until they are retrained.¹
• Site-specific induction has happened, covering this site’s hazards, underground services, the plans, site rules, facilities, first aid, emergency procedures, access, egress, and security.¹
• Licences and tickets current for the work each person is doing today, not the work they were engaged for.
• Contractor insurances and documents not quietly lapsed since the job started.
• Sign-in that checks all of that rather than recording an arrival. ComplyFlow’s site access app tests a worker’s profile against the requirements set for that location, runs the induction where one is needed, and puts that location’s hazards in front of them to acknowledge; a site induction runs for 12 months.³

A Checklist Is Not a Risk Assessment.

A checklist finds hazards. That is step one of four. The code of practice sets the process out as identify hazards, assess risks if necessary, control risks, and review the control measures to make sure they are working as planned.²

Assessing means two things: how severe the injury or illness could be, and how likely it is that someone suffers it.¹ Controlling means working down the hierarchy in order: eliminate the hazard; then substitute, isolate, or engineer it out; then administrative controls; then PPE for whatever is left.¹ Reviewing means going back when a control stops working, before a change at the workplace, when a new hazard turns up, when consultation shows a review is needed, or when a health and safety representative asks.¹

Not every hazard needs the full treatment. A risk assessment is not necessary where the risk and how to control it are already known.¹ Some are not optional at all: the WHS Regulations require one for work such as entry into a confined space, diving work, and live electrical work.² The procedure is in our guide to conducting a risk assessment, and what it produces belongs in a risk register rather than a tray with last month’s checklists.

The High Risk Construction Work List Is the Trigger Most Walks Miss.

One trigger is worth checking on every walk, because it is the one businesses learn about afterwards. If any task on site is high risk construction work, a safe work method statement must be prepared before that work starts.⁴ Not at the pre-start. Before.

The list sits in regulation 291 of the WHS Regulations, and regulation 299 is what requires the SWMS.⁵ Work is on the list if it:⁴

• involves a risk of a person falling more than 2 metres
• is carried out on a telecommunication tower
• involves demolition of an element of a structure that is load-bearing, or otherwise related to the physical integrity of the structure
• involves, or is likely to involve, the disturbance of asbestos
• involves structural alterations or repairs that require temporary support to prevent collapse
• is carried out in or near a confined space
• is carried out in or near a shaft or trench with an excavated depth greater than 1.5 metres, or a tunnel
• involves the use of explosives
• is carried out on or near pressurised gas distribution mains or piping
• is carried out on or near chemical, fuel, or refrigerant lines
• is carried out on or near energised electrical installations or services
• is carried out in an area that may have a contaminated or flammable atmosphere
• involves tilt up or precast concrete
• is carried out on, in, or adjacent to a road, railway, shipping lane, or other traffic corridor in use by traffic other than pedestrians
• is carried out in an area in which there is any movement of powered mobile plant
• is carried out in an area in which there are artificial extremes of temperature
• is carried out in or near water or other liquid that involves a risk of drowning
• involves diving work

Each state and territory reproduces the list in its own regulations, so read the wording that applies where you work. A SWMS must identify the high risk construction work, state the hazards and risks, describe the controls, and describe how they will be implemented, monitored, and reviewed.⁶ A generic one off a shelf may not meet the regulations unless it has first been reviewed against the actual workplace and amended.⁴ If the work is not being done the way the SWMS says, it stops until it can be.⁶

Reviewing every incoming SWMS against the real site is where the hours go on a busy construction job, and that is the subject of the SWMS review bottleneck.

A Finding With No Owner and No Date Is Not a Finding.

Walking the site is the easy part. What decides whether anything changes is what happens to each failed item in the hour afterwards, which is what an inspections and audits process is for.

Attach four things to every failure before you leave: what you saw, what you want done, who is doing it, and by when. On the ComplyFlow mobile app, an item marked as needing action carries the finding, the recommendation, the person responsible, a priority, a due date, and photographs, and uploads when the inspection is completed and synced.⁷ Closing it out means recording what was done, the date, whether it is complete or partial, and the file that proves it.⁸

Then schedule the next walk rather than relying on memory. A template can repeat on a set interval and be assigned to a person, a site, or a category of staff, with a dashboard notification 7 days after it falls overdue and a weekly email summary.⁹

Three Checklists You Can Download and Use.

These are starting points rather than finished documents, and each needs cutting and adding before it fits a real site. Each is a CSV, so it can be edited in a spreadsheet and uploaded as an inspection template.¹⁰

• Nursing home risk assessment checklist template
• Large commercial property risk assessment checklist template
• Manufacturing facility risk assessment checklist template

What a Good Site Walk Leaves Behind.

A walk that leaves behind a signed checklist and nothing else has produced evidence that somebody looked. That is not evidence that anything is safer.

A good one leaves three things: a hazard list shorter than last month’s, a set of actions with names and dates on them, and one or two items you have deliberately set aside to assess properly because you do not yet know how badly they could go. That last group is the reason to walk the site at all. The rest is bookkeeping, and bookkeeping is what the system should be doing for you.