Risk Assessments

Project Work

All BSc, MSc and MChem project work will require individual experiment risk assessments to be carried out and counter-signed by a member of staff responsible for overseeing your project. Starting from 2024, a uniform risk assessment system has been introduced in Teaching Labs, in line with the departmental risk assessment guidelines. This is part of a University wide push on COSHH compliance and more detailed risk assessing procedures. These Risk assessments should cover information on the chemicals being used, their hazards, any hazards arising from the procedures, as well as a range of information on protective equipment and mitigation. Once a risk assessment has been signed off by a supervisor a PDF summary sheet will be generated automatically, these will be printed by the Technical Staff and will be available to collect before you begin working. In all cases the risk assessment must be clearly displayed on the fume hood where the work is being undertaken. Further guidance on completing risk assessments is available in the experiment risk assessment completion instructions below. A Risk assessment creation tool will be provided for each individual project allowing you to create risk assessments from a blank template or a copy of a preexisting one. Instructions on file creation for staff and students are also provided below along with an instrucitonal video. 

Taught Practicals

For taught practicals the risk assessment has been carried out for you. A full length risk assessment is available in the spreadsheet below, or by scanning the QR code at the top of your script. There is also a shortened version within the script, highlighting the main hazards and precautions. It is crucial that you read through the risk assessment section of the experiment and understand its contents before starting any practical work. There will also be a pre-lab briefing task to complete before each lab session, which you will need to complete before you are allowed to start. If you have any questions regarding any aspect of an experiment you should stop what you are doing and seek advice from a demonstrator.