How often should you review your Legionella risk assessment?
In 2013 the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) dropped the two-year review frequency for Legionella risk assessment, opting instead to advocate the importance of regular reviews - in case of any changes and specifically if there is a change of circumstances that could affect risk.
A Legionella Risk assessment review can mean different levels of intervention from a desktop review to a full site survey and inspection of water systems. As such organisations may find it useful to develop a formal process for reviewing Legionella risk assessments that identify when a risk assessment is required and what type. Where there is an established Water Safety Group with a collective responsibility for risk assessment, such a process can provide the assurance necessary to demonstrate that all risk systems have been considered.
Our Legionella risk assessment review service begins with a desk-based assessment of potential risk presented by each premises, block, or part of premises, based on each water system type. This is particularly useful to organisations that have a large property portfolio as it can be used to identify those sites that require a new site survey and to generate a multi-year programme of risk assessment surveys.
The benefits of an established water risk assessment review process include:
- A management process approach to risk assessment need;
- Defensible long-term programme of risk assessment reviews;
- Improved budget management for the client;
- Potential cost savings through the elimination of unnecessary survey work
It can be helpful to the Water Safety Group to maintain a schedule of the various water systems under their control and when they were last assessed. Cross-referencing against the review criteria defined in the HSE's ACoP L8 [2013].
Our FREE Legionella risk assessment review tool aims at giving you a system for doing just that, it can be used to review your current reports against the criteria detailed in the HSE's guidance, which can also be easily updated and reviewed at each Water Safety Group meeting.
Read more about what is a legionella risk assessment, Mistakes to Avoid and Frequency >
