Young persons risk assessment: what employers must do for under-18s

In Great Britain, a young person for workplace safety purposes is someone under 18. Employers must take account of their possible lack of experience, awareness of risk and maturity when assessing work. Northern Ireland employers should check their own corresponding regulations. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 set out particular protections. HSE's young-worker guidance explains a proportionate approach: review existing arrangements before a young person starts where needed, but do not create paperwork for its own sake if the current assessment already covers their risks.

Review the job before the person starts

List the tasks, equipment, substances, environment, supervision and time pressure. Ask what a new worker may not recognize. Consider the person's experience, training, maturity and any health condition or other need that affects the work. A familiar low-risk office task may be covered by existing arrangements; a factory, farm or construction task may need more specific controls and supervision. Assess the real work, including temporary tasks and cleaning or maintenance, not only the apprentice's formal training plan.

HSE says that if an employer is taking on a young person for the first time, or a young person with particular needs, the assessment should be reviewed before they start. It also says a separate assessment is not necessarily required for every work-experience student if existing assessments already consider the young-person factors. The right test is whether risks have been assessed and managed, not whether a document has a particular heading.

Hazards that merit particular attention

Regulation 19 highlights exposure that may exceed a young person's capacity or affect their development, including physical, biological and chemical agents and processes. Check age restrictions or specific prohibitions on machinery and activities. Do not assume supervision makes a prohibited task lawful. For a permitted task, decide what induction, training, close supervision, guarding, protective equipment and working limits are needed. Verify separate rules for children and working hours where applicable.

Some young people may already have meaningful experience; others may be new to the work. Controls should reflect the individual and task. A generic ban on all young workers doing any hazardous work is not what the Regulations say. Equally, enthusiasm and a training certificate do not remove the need to control exposure and check restrictions.

Children below school leaving age

Where the worker is a child of compulsory school age, employers must provide parents or guardians with information about risks and the preventive and protective measures. Additional child-employment rules may apply. HSE's guidance and the Regulations should be checked for the circumstances before arranging a placement. Tell the school or organizer what supervision and work limits apply where that is part of the placement arrangement. Information should be understandable and sent before work begins, not added to a file after the placement ends.

Keep the assessment alive

Record significant findings where the general five-or-more-employees rule applies and keep practical evidence of induction, supervision and restrictions. Check early whether the young worker understands the hazards and how to stop unsafe work. Reassess after a task change, incident, new equipment or feedback that controls are unclear. Involve the young person in that conversation rather than assuming silence means the controls work.

The risk assessment software page is the commercial route for a wider document process. The training matrix page is related to recording training, but a completed matrix does not prove a young worker is competent or that a prohibited task is permitted. No such automated determination is claimed for Complys.

General information, not legal advice. Verify current requirements against the primary sources linked above.