Reading risk assessments (portal)

Reading risk assessments

Some risk assessments require staff acknowledgement before you can do the work they cover — using chemicals in the science lab, going on a school trip, handling food in the kitchen. The portal lists every published RA where acknowledgement is required.

How to use it

1. From the portal, open Risk assessments in the left rail.
2. The index shows every published RA you might need to acknowledge, grouped by category.
3. Open one. Read it through — hazards, existing controls, additional controls, residual score.
4. If acknowledgement is required, there’s an Acknowledge button at the bottom. Click it.
5. Your acknowledgement is logged with your user ID, the RA version, and a timestamp.

What “acknowledge” means

It’s a confirmation that you’ve read the RA and understand what it asks of you. Not a contract, not a statement of agreement — “I have read this”.

When you’ll see new acknowledgements

• A new RA is published in a category relevant to you.
• An existing RA is revised and the H&S lead has flagged it as requiring re-acknowledgement.
• You join a department where staff are expected to acknowledge a standing set of RAs.

The portal home shows a banner “You have N outstanding risk assessments to acknowledge” whenever there’s something pending.

What RAs you’ll see

Every published, acknowledgement-required RA. You won’t see:

• Draft RAs (not yet in force).
• RAs the lead has retired or archived.
• RAs marked as not requiring acknowledgement (those are reference-only).

Gotchas

• Acknowledgement is per-version. v1 doesn’t carry forward to v2 — you’ll be asked again when an RA is revised.
• The portal page is read-only — you can’t suggest edits here. If you spot something wrong, raise a ticket to the H&S lead.
• Acknowledging only affects your own record. Other staff are not automatically updated by your acknowledgement.

Related

• Risk assessments (agent view)