What Should a Risk Assessment Report Contain?

Which article governs the contents of a risk assessment report?

The contents of a risk assessment report are governed by Art. 11, headed “Documentation”, of the Regulation on Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessment (Official Gazette 29.12.2012, No. 28512). The Regulation uses the term risk assessment document rather than “report” and does not impose a specific template; but it lists the information the document must contain as a minimum. In a labour inspector’s inspection, the first thing checked is whether this minimum information is complete.

This article covers the contents of the document and its signing arrangements item by item. We explained how a risk assessment is carried out, who the team consists of and the choice of method in our article on how to carry out a risk assessment.

Minimum information required in the risk assessment document

Art. 11/1	Minimum information	Where is it written in the document?	Common deficiency
(a)	Name and address of the workplace and the name of the employer	Cover page	The address of a branch or second production site not written
(b)	Names and titles of those who carried it out; certificate details issued by the Ministry for the OHS specialist and workplace physician	Cover or team page	The certificate number and class of the specialist and physician not written
(c)	Date carried out and validity date	Cover page	Validity date not written at all, or not matching the hazard class
(ç)	Name of each department, if carried out separately for departments	Contents and section headings	The list of departments not matching the layout on site
(d)	Sources of hazard and hazards identified	Risk table	Hazard and risk confused
(e)	Risks identified	Risk table	General phrases (“risk of falling”) instead of stating who will be affected and how
(f)	Method or methods used in the risk analysis	Method page	The method is named but there are no scoring tables or acceptable risk threshold
(g)	Analysis results, including order of importance and priority	Risk table and summary	Risks not put in order of priority
(ğ)	Corrective and preventive measures, their completion dates and the risk level determined afterwards	Action plan	Date and owner blank; the post-measure level never calculated

Writing the difference between hazard and risk clearly (items d and e) directly determines the quality of the document; our article on the difference between hazard and risk, explained with examples, is useful for this distinction.

Risk assessment cover page

The Regulation does not require a separate cover page; however, gathering the information in items (a), (b) and (c) on a single page makes things easier both in inspections and in internal checks. The cover page should include:

The workplace name, full address, SGK registration number and the name of the employer,
The workplace’s NACE code and hazard class,
The departments covered by the assessment, or the phrase “the whole workplace”,
The date of the assessment and the validity date,
The method or methods used,
The list of the risk assessment team: name and surname, role, and certificate details for the specialist and physician,
The revision number and reason for revision.

The validity date is calculated according to the renewal period in Art. 12 of the Regulation: at the latest 2 years in very hazardous, 4 in hazardous and 6 in less hazardous workplaces. If you do not know your workplace’s class, you can check it with our OHS obligations calculator.

Risk assessment signing and initialling rule

The second paragraph of Art. 11 of the Regulation is clear: the pages of the risk assessment document are numbered; every page is initialled by the persons who carried it out, the last page is signed, and the document is kept at the workplace. The third paragraph states that the document may be prepared and archived electronically.

In practice, the following questions come up often:

Who initials? “The persons who carried it out”, i.e. the risk assessment team. Under Art. 6 of the Regulation, the team consists of the employer or their representative, the OHS specialist, the workplace physician, the employee representative, support staff and knowledgeable workers representing the units.
Is it enough if only the specialist signs? People who are on the team but whose signature and initials are not on the document raise the question of whether the team was actually formed. Everyone on the team list should have signed.
Why do page numbers matter? Numbering in the form “Page 12 / 48” shows that pages have not been added or removed afterwards.
How is an electronic document signed? The Regulation allows electronic preparation and archiving; decide on a method that satisfies the signature and initialling requirement (a copy with wet signatures or a secure electronic signature) and apply it consistently.

Risk analysis report example: how is a table row written?

Each row of the risk table should cover items (d) to (ğ) on its own. An example row written using the Fine-Kinney method:

Field	Example
Department / activity	Press line / die change
Source of hazard	Hydraulic press ram
Hazard	Unexpected movement of the ram during a die change
Risk	The die setter’s hand being crushed between the ram and the die, loss of a limb
Persons affected	Die setters, maintenance technicians
Existing measures	Two-hand control and light curtain active in production; bypassed in setting mode during die changes
Probability × frequency × severity	6 × 3 × 15 = 270 (high risk)
Measure	An energy isolation and lockout step to be added to the die change instruction, a ram safety block to be provided
Owner / date	Maintenance supervisor / 15.03.2027
After the measure	1 × 3 × 15 = 45 (possible risk); monitoring criterion: monthly site observation

We explained the scoring tables in detail in our articles on the Fine-Kinney method and the L-type matrix. What matters is that the scoring tables and acceptable risk threshold of the method you use appear on the method page; otherwise the number “270” means nothing to the reader.

Sections found missing in inspections: checklist

Before accepting or signing the document, ask these questions:

Does the cover include the name, address, employer, date and validity date? (Art. 11/1-a, c)
Are the certificate details of the specialist and physician written? (Art. 11/1-b)
Does the team list comply with Art. 6; are the employee representative and a support staff member on the team?
Do the departments match the actual layout on site; have interactions between departments (e.g. fumes from the welding section, the forklift route passing through the assembly area) been addressed? (Art. 9/4)
Have measurement results, health surveillance records, and occupational accident and near miss records been used in identifying hazards? (Art. 8/1)
Have groups requiring special policies, such as pregnant, breastfeeding, young and disabled workers, been assessed separately? (Art. 8/1-ı)
Are the method and scoring tables in the document? (Art. 11/1-f)
Have the risks been put in order of priority? (Art. 9/5)
Does each measure have an owner and a start and end date? (Art. 10/1-c)
Has the post-measure risk level been calculated? (Art. 10/3, Art. 11/1-ğ)
If there are subcontractors, has their risk assessment been integrated with the principal employer’s work? (Art. 15/2)
Are the pages numbered, every page initialled and the last page signed? (Art. 11/2)

For the whole process of preparing for an inspection, see our article on preparing for a labour inspector’s inspection, and for the place of the document in the OHS file, the workplace OHS file.

We prepare the risk assessment document specific to your business on site, together with your team, within our risk assessment service, and follow up renewal dates.

Frequently Asked Questions

What information is mandatory in a risk assessment report?

Under Art. 11 of the Regulation: workplace and employer details, those who carried out the assessment and the certificate details of the specialist and physician, the date and validity date, departments, sources of hazard and hazards, risks, the method used, prioritised analysis results, and measures with the post-measure risk level.

Must every page of the risk assessment be signed?

Every page is initialled by the persons who carried out the assessment, and the last page is signed. The pages are also numbered.

Can the risk assessment be kept electronically?

Yes. The Regulation states that the document may be prepared and archived in electronic and similar media. It is necessary to decide on a method that satisfies the initialling and signature requirement and apply it consistently.

Is a cover page mandatory?

The Regulation does not require a separate cover page. However, gathering minimum information such as the workplace, employer, team, date and validity date on a single page makes things easier in inspections and internal checks.