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Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Control (HIRAC) Procedure

Policy Code: CG988

Purpose
Scope
Definitions
Actions
New plant or substance:
Workplace change other than introduction of new plant or substance:
Existing activities, work practices, equipment, items of plant, materials, substances, facilities, premises, buildings, areas, etc:
Electrical Equipment:
Responsibility
Policy Base
Associated Documents
Forms/Record Keeping
Implementation

Purpose

To describe the measures to be implemented within Schools and Directorates of the University of Ballarat for the identification of hazards, and for the assessment and control of health and safety risks. It outlines methods for these hazards management activities, and sets minimum performance standards for Schools and Directorates.

Scope

The following procedure principally applies to Supervisors and Managers of the University of Ballarat. It applies to:

  • planned workplace changes that may affect the health or safety of employees, students, contractors, visitors or customers of the University prior to their implementation; and
  • existing activities, work practices, equipment, items of plant, materials, substances, facilities, premises, buildings, areas, etc.

Definitions

Hazard: The potential to cause harm to a person or to the natural environment.

Hazards management: The structured process of hazard identification, risk assessment and control aimed at providing a safe and healthy environment for employees, contractors, students, customers and visitors whilst on University premises or whilst engaged in University-endorsed activities.

Risk: A combination of the likely frequency and severity of harm arising from a hazard.

Risk assessment: The process of evaluating likely frequency and severity of harm arising from a hazard.

Risk control: The process of implementing measures to reduce as far as reasonaly practicable the risk associated with a hazard. The control process must follow the control hierarchy, in order, as prescribed in some health and safety legislation. It is important that control measures do not introduce new hazards, and that the ongoing effectiveness of the controls is monitored.

Reasonably practicable: Means practicable having regard to:

  • the severity of the hazard or risk in question;
  • the state of knowledge about that hazard or risk and any ways of removing or mitigating it;
  • the availability and suitability of ways to remove or mitigate that hazard or risk; and
  • the cost of removing or mitigating that hazard or risk.

Risk control hierarchy: Ranks risk control measures in decreasing order of effectiveness:

  • elimination of hazard;
  • substitution of hazardous processes or materials with safer ones;
  • engineering controls;
  • administrative controls; and
  • personal protective equipment.

The risk control measures implemented for the hazards identified should always aim to be as high in the list as practicable.

Supervisor / Manager: Any employee of the University who:

  • plans, organises or supervises the activities of other employees, contractors, students or visitors on behalf of the University; or
  • designs or organises the design of new/refurbished facilities for the University.

In this policy and associated documents, the terms "Supervisor" and "Manager" include Senior Managers.

Senior managers: Heads of Schools/Departments/Centres, Directors, Vice-Presidents, Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellors, and the Vice-Chancellor.

New: Used to describe plant or substances that have not been previously introduced within the University under the proposed conditions. It covers plant and substances that have never been introduced on site or have been introduced, but for different purposes, in different quantities, in different areas, etc.

Plant: All machinery and fixed appliances. It does not include road-registered vehicles, household consumer goods (eg kitchen refrigerators or microwave ovens), common hand-held tools (drills, sanders, angle grinders, etc), portable items (mobile phones, hand-held instruments, etc), and general office furniture and equipment (eg desktop computers, printers), except where these items contain or generate a substance as defined below.

Substance: All chemicals and materials, in any physical form (liquid, solid, powder, gas, mixtures, etc), used in the course of employees' or contractors' work. It includes, but is not limited to, compressed gases, solvents, radioactive substances, building materials, pesticides, laboratory chemicals, and cleaning chemicals. It excludes cooking ingredients used in food preparation, first-aid products and pharmaceuticals used under qualified supervision.

Actions

All Schools/Departments/Centres, Directorates and the Vice-Chancellor's Office must:

New plant or substance:

Prior to the introduction of any new plant or substance within the School/Department/Centre or Directorate:

  1. comply with the requirements of the OHS Procedure - Consultation for Workplace Changes;
  2. complete a New Plant or Substance Checklist; and
  3. perform a HIRAC review in accordance with the HIRAC Guidelines and document the results on a HIRAC Report form.

Workplace change other than introduction of new plant or substance:

  1. determine in consultation with relevant employees whether the change may reasonably be expected to affect the health or safety of any person; and
  2. if a potential health or safety impact is identified:
    1. perform a HIRAC review in accordance with the HIRAC Guidelines or any of the various guidelines provided to assist reviewers (e.g. for manual handling tasks, for children in University activities/locations, and for workplace bullying - see "Associated Documents" below), and document the results on a HIRAC Report form; and
    2. refer to the Consultation for Workplace Changes Procedure for any other requirement.

Existing activities, work practices, equipment, items of plant, materials, substances, facilities, premises, buildings, areas, etc:

  1. in consultation with the local Health and Safety Representative(s), develop an annual schedule of HIRAC reviews as part of the Annual Health and Safety Plan;
  2. conduct the HIRAC reviews in consultation with the relevant Health and Safety Representative(s) according to the schedule, using the HIRAC Report to document their findings (various guidelines are provided to assist the reviewers: for manual handling tasks, for children in University activities/locations, and for workplace bullying - see "Associated Documents" below);
  3. coordinate the implementation of risk control measures; and
  4. liaise closely with the Health and Safety Improvement Team(s) in their School or Directorate.

Each School, Directorate and the Vice-Chancellor's Office must submit the following documents to the relevant Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor or Vice-President and to the Manager - Risk, Health & Safety:

  • before the end of each calendar year, a copy of the annual schedule of HIRAC reviews for the following year (usually included in the School's/Directorate's Annual Health and Safety Plan); and
  • quarterly summary reports that include details of the HIRAC reviews conducted and the risk control measures adopted/implemented. (Refer to the Quarterly Summary Health and Safety Report for the required format.)

Each School/Department/Centre, Directorate and the Vice-Chancellor's Office must keep a central register of completed HIRAC Reports with details of the risk control measures implemented as a result. Registers must be available for auditing by the Risk, Health and Safety Department; a WorkSafe inspector; or another auditor.

Electrical Equipment:

  1. develop and maintain a register of the electrical equipment within the control of the School/Directorate that requires inspection and testing in accordance with AS/NZS 3760;
  2. either have local staff member trained to conduct the inspection and testing program or engage competent persons to perform the tests; and
  3. conduct the program of in-service inspection and testing of electrical equipment, in compliance with AS/NZS 3760.

The Risk, Health and Safety Department can loan an approved testing device to trained staff members. Test tags are also available from the Risk, Health & Safety Department.

Physical Resources can assist Schools and Directorates that have elected to sub-contract their testing program in identifying competent service providers.

Responsibility

Heads of Schools and Directors are responsible for the overall implementation of the procedure in their School or Directorate (new plant and substances reviews, yearly HIRAC schedules, register of HIRAC Reports, implementation of control measures, quarterly reports, electrical inspection and testing, etc).

Supervisors and Managers are responsible for the implementation of this procedure in relation to the facilities and activities under their control.

Health and Safety Representatives must assist Supervisors and Managers in the implementation of this procedure.

The Manager - Risk, Health and Safety is responsible for:

  • maintaining and updating this procedure as required;
  • publicising the existence of this procedure to the University community; and
  • developing and delivering the training required by Supervisors, Managers and Health and Safety Representatives to fulfil the role assigned to them in this procedure.

The various Portfolio Health and Safety Coordinating Teams are responsible for the overall monitoring and supervision of the HIRAC activities across each portfolio.

Policy Base

Occupational Health and Safety Policy - Hazards Management Policy

Associated Documents

Forms

Forms/Record Keeping

Title Location Responsible Officer Minimum Retention Period
HIRAC Report School/Directorates Head of School/Directors of Directorates Until superseded by new risk assessment. Most items of legislation specify 5 years as maximum interval between assessments.
Quarterly Summary HIRAC Report School/Directorates Head of School/Director of Directorates 1 year

Implementation

The Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Control (HIRAC) Procedure will be implemented throughout the University of Ballarat via:

  1. an Announcement Notice under ‘UB Communicate’ on the ‘myUB Gateway’ website and through the University of Ballarat Policy - ‘Recently Approved Documents’ webpage to alert the University-wide community of the approved Procedure;
  2. inclusion on the University of Ballarat Policy, Procedure and Forms website.
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