In any activity and at all times, you have a moral and legal responsibility for your safety and that of others that may be affected by your actions.  It is particularly important in project work, e.g. while designing apparatus, which must be safe to use, or planning new uses for existing equipment.

Risk assessment in the Department

All students must discuss the safety implications of their project with their supervisors and complete a risk assessment of their work. A risk assessment form must be completed with the assistance of your supervisor. The form should then be sent to the departmental Safety Office, even if ‘no risk’ has been identified. The form must be received by the Safety Office before the end of week 1, Michaelmas term (i.e. by 4pm on the Wednesday). A penalty will be deducted from your project total for every week, or part week, the assessment form is late. Students must make every effort to have their risk assessments counter-signed by supervisors, but if this proves difficult and the deadline may be missed, they should submit an unsigned version.

NB: all students are required to attend a talk by the Safety Officer in Week 0.  No practical work may be undertaken before the risk assessment form has been seen by the Safety Office.

Risk assessment outside the Department

If you are sponsored and your project is a collaborative one with your sponsor, no further action is needed. If your project involves working away from the Department with a firm which is not sponsoring you, the Industrial Experience Coordinator, must be consulted.

Note from the Safety Office

One of the key roles of this Department is to develop students for a role within industry and/or academia.  As this is likely to include positive engagement in health and safety procedures, you will be expected to demonstrate an awareness of the hazards presented by your work, both to yourself and others, understand the risks that these present and think of control measures that would minimise these.  

To help prepare you for this we ask you to include a risk assessment as part of your project documentation.  Certain projects, such as those which are computer based, will have relatively simple risk assessments but consideration should still be given to ergonomic issues.  Other projects may have a whole range of hazards, physical (e.g. electrical or lasers), chemical or biological, to be considered.

The principles of risk assessment will be explained in the Safety Officer's talk at the start of the Michaelmas term. Attendance at this presentation by all final year students is expected. 

Discuss the risk assessment with your supervisor, and submit the completed risk assessment form to me before starting practical work on the project, and at the latest by the end of week 1.  I will review them, countersign them if they adequately reflect the principles of risk management, and return them to your supervisor for inclusion in the project package.

I may ask for more details about certain technical aspects of the project or for an enhanced risk assessment for particular hazards.  I am happy to discuss any safety questions or reservations you may have with you.

Ian Slack
Departmental Safety Officer
INO-11