Free IOSH Managing Safely Exam Flashcards

Moral (nobody should be harmed by their work), legal (criminal duties enforced by inspectors, plus civil claims) and financial (accidents and ill health drain money). Module 1 uses these three to justify every technique taught later, so answers built on 'political' or 'technical' reasons miss the framework.

Tasks can be delegated to supervisors or contractors, but accountability for the outcome stays with the manager who holds the role. 'I asked someone else to deal with it' is not a defence in an investigation, a tribunal or a prosecution.

Insured costs - employers' liability claims and damaged plant - are visible and recoverable. Uninsured costs such as investigation time, lost output, overtime, sick pay, retraining and reputation come straight out of profit and are normally the larger share, which is why the course draws accident costs as an iceberg.

HSE puts the cost of injuries and new cases of ill health from current working conditions at GBP 22.9 billion a year (2023/24), alongside 40.1 million working days lost. Figures of this size are the evidence behind the financial argument in module 1.

HSE's key figures report 1.9 million workers suffering a work-related illness, including 964,000 with stress, depression or anxiety and 511,000 with a musculoskeletal disorder. Ill health, not injury, dominates the statistics - which is why the subject is taught as safety and health together.

HSE's latest key figures list 126 workers killed in work-related accidents, against 2,146 mesothelioma deaths in 2024 caused by past asbestos exposure. Long-latency ill health kills far more people than sudden accidents, so health hazards deserve equal weight in a risk assessment.

IOSH says delegates are evaluated with multi-format questions plus a workplace risk assessment project, and both parts must be passed to earn the certificate. IOSH's project guidance sets the project pass mark at 23 out of 38; the written paper's item count and pass mark come from approved providers, who commonly run a 30-question paper in 45 minutes.

A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm - injury, ill health, damage or loss. Risk combines how likely that harm is with how serious it would be, so a serious hazard can carry a low risk once effective controls are in place, and the two words are never interchangeable in an answer.

Identify the hazards; assess the risks; control the risks; record your findings; review the controls. Recording is step four rather than the starting point - deciding who could be harmed and how must happen before anything is written down.

Once you employ five or more people you must record the significant findings: the hazards, who might be harmed and how, and what you are doing about it. Below five employees the assessment is still legally required - only the written record is optional.

It must be proportionate to the level of risk, identify the significant hazards, consider everyone who could be affected including non-employees, and remain valid for a reasonable period. A generic template signed off without walking the job fails that test even if every box is ticked.

Rate likelihood 1 to 5 and consequence 1 to 5, then multiply to give a rating out of 25 - IOSH's project guidance calls this the IOSH (5 x 5) risk rating calculator. Judge consequence on the foreseeable harm (death, a 5, is justified for electricity or falls from height), and expect added controls to cut the likelihood score rather than the consequence.

Young workers, new and expectant mothers, lone and night workers, new starters, disabled workers, visitors, contractors and members of the public. Step two of the assessment asks not only who is exposed but how each group could be harmed by that specific hazard.

Residual risk is what remains once the chosen controls are actually working. If the residual rating is still unacceptable you must add further controls, change the method or stop the activity - and scoring the risk before and after is what proves the assessment achieved something.

Eliminate, Reduce, Isolate, Control, PPE, Discipline - work down the list and only drop a level when the higher option is not reasonably practicable. PPE sits near the bottom because it protects one person, only while worn correctly, and gives no warning when it fails.

It means weighing the risk against the time, trouble and money needed to control it, and acting unless the sacrifice is grossly disproportionate to the benefit - the test set in Edwards v National Coal Board (1949). It is a lower bar than 'practicable', which means technically possible whatever the cost.

PPE must be suitable, compatible, maintained, stored properly, backed by training and supplied free of charge - and since 6 April 2022 those duties also cover limb (b) casual and gig workers. HSE treats PPE as the last resort, after elimination, substitution and engineering controls.

Collective measures such as a guard rail or a covered floor opening work without the individual doing anything. Personal measures such as a harness only work if that one person fits and clips it correctly every time, so HSE requires collective protection to be considered first.

Avoid work at height where it is reasonably practicable; where it cannot be avoided, prevent falls using a safe existing place of work or the right equipment; then minimise the distance and consequences of a fall. There is no two-metre rule - work at height is anywhere a person could fall far enough to be injured.

A safe system of work is the defined method for a task, built from the risk assessment. A permit to work is a written authorisation for high-risk jobs such as confined-space entry, hot work or live electrical work: it names the precautions, the people, the time limit and who signs the job back as complete.

Competence is the right skills, knowledge, experience and training for the task, with supervision while someone is still learning. HSE treats low-risk ladder work of under 30 minutes as short duration, where instruction and appropriate training may be enough without formal certification.

Employers must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of employees: safe plant and systems of work, safe use and storage of substances, information, instruction, training and supervision, a safe workplace with safe access, and adequate welfare. Section 3 extends similar care to contractors, visitors and the public.

Employees must take reasonable care of their own and others' health and safety and co-operate with the employer, and nobody may intentionally interfere with or misuse anything provided for safety. Section 9 forbids charging employees for anything done to meet a statutory duty, including PPE.

The policy must be written down once you have five or more employees. HSE's three parts are the statement of intent signed by the most senior person, the responsibilities showing who does what, and the arrangements describing how it happens in practice.

Criminal proceedings are brought by HSE or the local authority to punish a breach and can end in an unlimited fine or imprisonment. Civil claims are brought by the injured person to win compensation - which is why employers' liability insurance of at least GBP 5 million is compulsory and the certificate must be available to employees.

An improvement notice requires a breach to be put right within a stated period of at least 21 days; a prohibition notice stops the dangerous activity, immediately where the risk of serious injury is imminent. Both can be appealed to an employment tribunal within 21 days, but appealing suspends only the improvement notice - a prohibition notice stays in force unless the tribunal directs otherwise.

Enforcement is split by main work activity: HSE inspectors cover sectors such as factories, construction, agriculture and hospitals, while local authority environmental health officers cover most offices, shops, warehousing, hotels and catering. Both hold the same powers of entry, notice and prosecution.

Regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires arrangements for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of preventive and protective measures, recorded once you have five or more employees. HSE's HSG65 and the ISO 45001 standard are the usual frameworks used to satisfy it.

Grouping hazards - physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic, psychosocial or organisational, and environmental - gives a prompt list so an assessment does not stop at trip hazards. IOSH courses work through a small set of broad hazard groups for exactly this reason.

Safety hazards such as an unguarded machine or an unprotected edge cause immediate injury, so cause and effect are obvious. Health hazards such as asbestos, noise, vibration and stress act slowly and may surface years later, so they are managed by exposure limits, monitoring and health surveillance rather than by reacting to accidents.

Lower exposure action value 80 dB(A) daily or weekly, peak 135 dB(C): provide information, training and hearing protection on request. Upper action value 85 dB(A), peak 137 dB(C): run a noise-reduction programme and enforce hearing protection zones. The exposure limit value of 87 dB(A) or peak 140 dB(C), judged allowing for protection worn, must never be exceeded.

Under the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 the daily exposure action value is 2.5 m/s2 A(8) - control exposure and provide health surveillance - and the exposure limit value is 5.0 m/s2 A(8), which must not be exceeded. Hand-arm vibration syndrome is permanent, so action is triggered by measured exposure, not by workers complaining.

COSHH requires exposure to substances hazardous to health to be prevented, or adequately controlled where prevention is not reasonably practicable, with PPE last in line. Workplace exposure limits are published in HSE's EH40 and are legally binding, and local exhaust ventilation must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every 14 months with records kept five years.

Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 makes whoever maintains or repairs non-domestic premises find or presume asbestos-containing materials, record them, assess and manage the risk, and warn anyone likely to disturb them. Any building built or refurbished before 2000 may contain asbestos, so the duty applies far beyond obvious industrial sites.

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 require you to avoid hazardous manual handling where reasonably practicable, assess what cannot be avoided, and reduce the risk as low as reasonably practicable. Assess the Task, Individual, Load and Environment - and note that the law sets no maximum legal weight, so 'under 25 kg is fine' is wrong.

Demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. They turn a vague complaint about stress into six design questions - workload, autonomy, help available, behaviour, clarity of role and how change is handled - and HSE expects work-related stress to be risk-assessed like any other workplace hazard.

HSE's HSG245 defines an accident as an event that results in injury or ill health, and a near miss as an event that causes no harm but had the potential to. An undesired circumstance is a set of conditions with that potential, such as untrained staff moving heavy patients - all three count as adverse events worth investigating.

The immediate cause is the most obvious reason the event happened, such as a missing guard. The underlying cause is the less obvious system or organisational reason behind it, such as pre-start checks never being done. The root cause is the initiating failing from which the others spring, and is generally a management, planning or organisational failure.

Gather the information, analyse it, identify suitable risk control measures, then produce and implement the action plan (HSG245). An investigation that stops after gathering facts produces a report but prevents nothing, which is why the action plan needs owners and dates.

A near miss is free evidence that a control has already failed once, and regulation 5 of the 1999 Management Regulations requires monitoring and review of preventive measures. HSG245 points to disasters such as Clapham Junction and the Herald of Free Enterprise, where earlier warnings had gone unactioned.

The responsible person - usually the employer - must notify the enforcing authority by the quickest practicable means without delay and send the formal report within 10 days of the incident. Specified injuries include fractures other than to fingers, thumbs or toes, amputations, loss of sight, crush injuries and serious burns.

An injury that stops someone doing their normal work for more than seven consecutive days (excluding the day of the accident) must be reported within 15 days of the accident. More than three consecutive days only has to be recorded, not reported, and RIDDOR records must be kept at least three years from the date the entry was made.

Interviews should establish what happened and why the system allowed it, not who to punish, because a blame culture pushes reporting underground and hides the underlying and root causes. An investigation that stops at 'operator error' leaves the management failing in place, ready to produce the next incident.

Active monitoring checks before things go wrong - inspections, audits, training records, assessments still in date. Reactive monitoring counts what has already gone wrong - injuries, ill health, near misses, damage. HSG65's Check stage needs both, because reactive data alone only describes past failures.

An inspection is a frontline look at conditions on the day: guards, housekeeping, access, PPE in use. An audit is a systematic examination of whether the management system exists, is being followed and is working, using documents, interviews and direct observation as evidence.

Internal auditors know the operation and cost less, but may be too close to challenge long-standing habits. External auditors bring independence and comparison with other organisations at higher cost; either way, nobody should audit work they are responsible for.

Leading indicators measure the effort going in - risk assessments in date, training completed, actions closed on time, inspections done. Lagging indicators measure outcomes - injury rates, days lost, enforcement notices. A board fed only lagging data always reacts after the harm.

Dividing incidents by the size of the workforce turns raw counts into something comparable between sites, sectors and years, which is how HSE publishes injury rates. Without that denominator the biggest site always looks the worst and benchmarking is meaningless.

HSE moved away from the older POPMAR model to Plan-Do-Check-Act: plan what you intend to achieve, do it by organising and controlling risks, check through active and reactive monitoring, then act by reviewing performance and learning lessons. The Act stage is what converts measurement into improvement.

Injury numbers can fall because reporting is being suppressed, because the workforce shrank, or by chance in small samples - and they say nothing about long-latency ill health such as asbestos or vibration disease. Balance them with leading indicators, near-miss reporting and audit findings before claiming an improvement.