C. Risk assessment
Modern cases treat risk assessment as a major part of an employer’s duty of care. The standard of care has evolved from a reactive approach to an approach requiring “positive thought”. An employer cannot simply wait for a danger to become obvious. They have an active duty to seek out knowledge of risks which are not immediately apparent. This includes a duty to inquire into possible means of reducing those risks. A reasonable employer is expected to look ahead, identify foreseeable risks, and consider practical measures to reduce them.
Risk assessment connects different parts of the duty. It can reveal that the workplace is unsafe, that equipment is unsuitable, that staff need training, or that the work system itself needs to be redesigned.
However, that does not mean every missing risk assessment automatically creates liability. A plaintiff must still show a link between the failure and the injury, usually by showing that a proper assessment would probably have identified the danger and led to precautions that would have prevented the harm.
Because the employer’s duty is personal and non-delegable, he remains legally responsible for the quality of the risk assessment. Even if an employer hires a specialist safety firm to conduct the audit, the employer is liable if that firm fails to identify a risk that a competent assessor should have found.
