Risk assessments and high-risk activity

Risk Assessments

A risk assessment is a way of…

• Identifying hazards: What can go wrong? You can find a non-unexhaustive list of examples of hazards on the ‘hazards tab’ in the standard core risk assessment template.
• Identifying who/what may be harmed: This could be something physical like a person getting hurt or a piece of equipment being damaged, but it could also be reputational.
• Identifying controls: You can identify actions required to prevent harm.
• Identifying appropriate action to take if an incident does occur: Risk will never be fully eliminated, but we need to have a plan about how to respond if incidents do happen.
• Taking ownership of managing the risks associated with your activity: You can allocate activity leaders to each relevant activity.
• Communicating risks to your members: You’ll be able to ensure all members know the steps they need to take to keep themselves and others safe.

The process for creating a risk assessment is identical for core and additional risk assessments. You can download a template risk assessment here:

Club and Society Risk Assessment Template

Once you have downloaded the file, save it as the name of your society and the name of the activity. Fill in the details required on the form - for Additional Risk Assessments you will need to specify the event dates and times.

Core risk assessments must cover:

• All of the activity your club/society delivers on a regular basis (i.e., anything listed in your constitution as core activity).
• This could be regular training, rehearsals, workshops, language lessons, competitions, weekly socials etc.
• In short, the activities that are essential for your club or society to function, should be covered in your core risk assessment.
• You only have to complete this once per academic year, but remember to refer back to this when running events to make sure you're comfortable with managing risk on the day. If you wish to update your core risk assessment, you can do this during re-registration or by sending an updated copy to [email protected].

Additional risk assessments are needed:

• Each time you plan to run a one-off activity/event not covered by your core risk assessment.
  • This usually means when you decide to undertake non-regular activity (e.g., if German Society want to run a charity football tournament).
• For any large-scale events, e.g.:
  • One-off social events i.e., end of year ball
  • Bloomsbury Theatre shows
  • Conferences with over 100 attendees
  • Large-scale fundraisers i.e., charity week
  • Main Quad events
• Any activity where an overnight stay is required (both in and out of the UK).
• For any high-risk activities.
• For any activity involving the general public

Writing your risk assessment

Before filling in your risk assessment, take a look at the Hazard Checklist tab. These are not a complete listing of scenarios for risk, but should be used as a guide. 

Return to the Risk Assessment Tab and work your way through the process of risk assessment from the left. You should consider how each potential risk may affect each aspect of your activity. You can request good copies or previous submission from your club or society as a guide from the Student Activities Reception, or review the webpages of clubs and societies for examples of approved core risk assessments.

• Activity Type: This can be the overall activity title in most cases.
• Activity Leader: Ideally the President, who will be present and in charge at the activity to implement the risk assessment.
• Identify Hazards: This may require several rows to be added, as most activities will have more than one associated hazard.
  • For example, a social night out in London might have several hazards including drinking alcohol, over-eating, getting lost from the group etc.
  • Try and be as comprehensive as possible - it is better to have a risk assessment with lots of detail than not enough!
• Identify Consequences: What are the consequences of the identified hazard?
  • For the example hazard of drinking alcohol the consequence would be intoxication.
• Identify Risk Control Measures: A control measure is a specific planned action designed to either reduce the likelihood of an incident occurring or reduce the severity of that incident.
  • In the case of drinking alcohol, it could be for the activity leader to ask everyone to drink sensibly. It could also mean the activity leader doesn't drink so that they can keep an eye on the other members.
• Likelihood of Incident Occurring: Rate between 1-5, where 1 is extremely unlikely and 5 is extremely likely.
• Severity of Consequence: Rate between 1-5, where 1 is extremely minor and 5 is extremely serious.
• Risk Rating: This column will auto-calculate the 'risk rating' by multiplying the likelihood of incident occurring by the severity of consequence.
  • This number should be fairly low - if it is high, consider if your activity is too risky, or if there are any other control measures you can put in place to lower the risk rating.
• Identify Action if Incident Occurs: What action will you take if an accident or incident occurs as a result of this hazard?
  • In the case of intoxication, a sensible action here might be to take them to hospital if the situation was serious enough.
  • Make sure to include the campus emergency number and/or the number of local emergency services.

Submit an Additional Risk Assessment through our online webform. 

High-risk activity

High-risk activities include but are not limited to:

• Risk to life, or risk of serious injury
• Overnight stays
• Travel abroad
• Trips outside of London
• Playing contact sport
• Naked flames or controlled explosives e.g., flares, fireworks
• Over 200 attendees
• Participants consuming alcohol
• High-profile or controversial speakers
• External under 18’s participating
• Events with non-UCL attendees
• Food preparation e.g., external catering
• Use of power tools
• Use of sharp implements, projectiles or weapons
• Live animals

If you are planning any high-risk activity, you must submit an Activity Registration Form and have an approved risk assessment in place. For high-risk activity, we ask you to submit this form with more notice than our usual ten working days, so that there is more time for our team to support you with managing risk:

If you’re not sure if your activity is high-risk, get in touch with us by emailing [email protected] and a member of the team will be able to help.

You must submit an Additional Risk Assessment if required by Union staff.