Risk assessments shows due diligence in the eyes of the courts

Posted on March 26^th 2008

In a recent case in the Court of Appeal a personal injury case was upheld for tenosynovitis against London Underground Ltd.

The train driver developed the complaint, in their wrist, when a new design for the safety brake was introduced.

Although originally rejected at the county court, the appeal judges decided that there had been no risk assessment of the new brake handle, as in accordance with the 1992 legislation.

That would have identified inadequacies in the training programme before they were implemented rather than waiting, as they did, for problems to be highlighted by employees, when injuries would be more likely to have happened.

When the requirement for risk assessments became law they were intended to be proactive so that employers could minimise potential risks as much as possible.

However some judges have been drifting back to the common law principle of the risk being reported before an assessment would be undertaken.

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