HSE banner

Example risk assessment for a car parking service

Important reminder

This example risk assessment shows the kind of approach a small business might take. It can be used as a guide to think through some of the hazards in your business and the steps you need to take to control the risks. Please note that it is not a generic risk assessment that you can just put your company name on and adopt wholesale without any thought. This would not satisfy the law - and would not be effective in protecting people.

Every business is different - you need to think through the hazards and controls required in your business for yourself.

Setting the scene

Smith’s Car Park Operators provide parking management services to a local authority. This involves services for ten car parks, two of them multi-storey, plus on-street parking including taking enforcement such as issuing parking tickets. The company subcontracts vehicle clamping and removal services.

The company’s control room is at the town centre multi-storey car park, where there are toilet facilities, a kitchen for preparing drinks and hot food and a mess room.

To service this contract, the company employs 40 people, full-time and part-time. Eight do mainly clerical jobs, and the rest are parking attendants (PAs) working shifts of 6.00-14.00, 14.00-22.00 and 22.00-6.00, seven days a week. They work in teams, each team led by a supervisor who reports to the contract manager. Four of the car parks are open at night, including both multistorey car parks, and eight staff work nights.

The contract manager did the risk assessment for PAs.

How was the general risk assessment done?

The manager followed the guidance in ‘Five Steps to Risk Assessment’.

  1. To identify the hazards, the manager:
    • Looked at HSE’s ‘businesses’ web pages for free health and safety advice, at the web pages on work related violence and at guidance on winter slip and fall safety tips.
    • Visited the car parks that the PAs will visit, and the routes to those car parks, and used his knowledge and experience to consider the risks that PAs will be exposed to, taking into consideration HSE’s guidance; and talked to supervisors, PAs and the safety representative to learn from their knowledge and experience, and listen to their concerns and opinions about health and safety issues.

    The manager then:

  2. Wrote down who could be harmed by the hazards and how.
  3. For each hazard, wrote down what controls, if any, were in place to manage these hazards. He then compared these controls to the guidance provided on HSE’s website. Where he noticed existing controls were not good enough, he wrote down what else was needed to control the risk.
  4. Put the risk assessment into practice, writing down when the actions that were needed would be done and who would do them. He ticked each action as it was completed. He discussed the findings with staff, put the risk assessment up in the mess room for all staff to see and made it part of the induction process for new staff.
  5. He decided to review and update the risk assessment every year, or straightaway if any major changes in the workplace happened.