Working out of hours

Working outside of the normal working hours may present risks to staff, which left unmanaged, could cause accidents and potentially put you on the wrong side of the law.

Managing the risks

To help you identify the hazards associated with such activities and the appropriate ways of controlling them, use our example Risk Assessment - Working Out of Hours . It covers the generic hazards associated with this type of activity and suggests control measures to reduce risks to an acceptable level. You can then add to this document items that are specific to your workplace and activities. You should ensure your document only addresses “significant” hazards, i.e. any that could, and more importantly are likely to, cause an accident or injury.

Note. You should also refer to your existing risk assessments, including your fire risk assessment, which are associated with the work being carried out. In many cases there will only be a requirement to add additional control measures for hazards that may result specifically from out-of-hours working.

Make your instructions clear

Don’t include activities in your document that simply don’t need to be there. Work to the principle that if there is any chance of your staff being unaware of the safe way of doing something, then you will need to make it clear in your document. Finally, always ensure that any control measures you identify and follow are decided upon the principle of “so far as is reasonably practicable”.

Note. The list of potential hazards is not exhaustive. However, for your risk assessment to be considered suitable and sufficient in the eyes of the law it must accurately reflect the “significant” hazards found when working outside of normal working hours in your workplace environment.