Veterinary Risk Assessments: A Practical Template for Practice Managers

Why generic risk assessment templates don't work for vet practices

Most off-the-shelf risk assessment templates are written for offices, factories, or generic SMEs. Apply them to a veterinary practice and you'll find half of the relevant hazards — radiation, anaesthetic gases, zoonoses, manual handling of animals — aren't on the form. The assessment becomes paperwork rather than protection, and the HSE is unsympathetic when the obvious vet-specific hazards aren't addressed.

The legal requirement is the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which requires every employer to make a "suitable and sufficient" assessment of the risks employees and others are exposed to. "Suitable and sufficient" is what the vet-specific bit needs to address.

If you'd rather work through this interactively, the Veterinary Risk Assessment Template tool generates a structured assessment for the hazards listed below. The framework on this page is what the tool is built around.

The hazard categories specific to veterinary practice

A risk assessment register that covers all of the following will, in most small animal practices, be reasonably complete:

1. Animal handling

Aggressive or fearful patients (bites, scratches)
Large dogs and exotic species
Equine and farm animal species (where applicable)
Manual lifting (heavy patients, equipment)
Kicking, crushing, head injuries
Zoonotic disease exposure (see category 2)

2. Zoonoses (biological agents)

Common: ringworm, cat scratch disease, leptospirosis, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis
Notifiable: rabies (animals from abroad), brucellosis (canine, increasing in UK)
Sharps-borne: anything blood-borne via needlestick
Reportable to RIDDOR if work-related infection diagnosed
Covered by Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) where biological agents are concerned

3. Radiation

Ionising (X-ray) — governed by Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017 (IRR17) and Justification of Practices Involving Ionising Radiation Regulations 2004
Non-ionising (laser therapy, where used)
Requires a Radiation Protection Adviser (RPA) and Radiation Protection Supervisor (RPS) for ionising radiation
Local Rules must be displayed and signed by relevant staff

4. Anaesthetic gases

Waste anaesthetic gas (WAG) inhalation — isoflurane, sevoflurane
Workplace exposure limits in HSE EH40
Pregnant staff — additional risk assessment required
Linked to COSHH compliance

5. Sharps

Needlestick injuries — risk of infection (bacterial, parasitic, viral)
Scalpel injuries during surgery
Glass ampoule injuries
Reportable under Sharps Regulations 2013 when injury occurs
Sharps disposal: see clinical waste guide

6. Chemicals

Anaesthetic agents (overlap with category 4)
Cleaning and disinfection products
Cytotoxic drugs (chemotherapy, where practiced)
Parasiticides (spot-ons, dips)
Laboratory reagents (formalin, stains)
Each requires a COSHH assessment — referenced from the risk assessment

7. Manual handling

Lifting patients (small animal: ~0-50kg; large animal: hundreds of kg)
Moving equipment and gas cylinders
Repetitive movements (suturing, dental work)
Governed by Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992

8. Lone working and out-of-hours

Solo on-call shifts
Home visits
Reception staff alone in evenings
Communication, check-in protocols, and personal alarms

9. Workplace stress and psychosocial

High emotional load (euthanasia, distressed clients, suicide-bereavement)
Long shifts and night duty
Increasingly recognised under HSE stress management standards

10. Premises and equipment

Slip/trip/fall (wet floors, cables)
Electrical safety
Fire safety — separate framework under Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
Equipment maintenance and calibration (autoclaves, anaesthesia machines, X-ray)

Risk assessment scoring

A common structure used by HSE-aligned assessments uses a 5x5 severity x likelihood matrix:

	Very Unlikely (1)	Unlikely (2)	Possible (3)	Likely (4)	Very Likely (5)
Catastrophic (5)	5	10	15	20	25
Major (4)	4	8	12	16	20
Moderate (3)	3	6	9	12	15
Minor (2)	2	4	6	8	10
Negligible (1)	1	2	3	4	5

Score thresholds (typical):

15-25: Unacceptable — stop work, control immediately
8-14: High — control measures within defined timeframe
4-7: Medium — control where reasonably practicable
1-3: Low — monitor

Scoring is judgmental. The HSE's view is that the score is less important than the controls — what matters is that you've thought about each hazard and put proportionate controls in place.

A defensible risk assessment includes

For each hazard you assess:

Hazard identification — what could cause harm
Who is at risk — staff role, clients, patients, contractors
Existing controls — what is already in place
Risk score before controls — severity x likelihood with no controls
Risk score after existing controls — what residual risk remains
Additional controls needed — gap between current state and acceptable risk
Action owner and target date — who is going to implement the additional controls
Review date — when this assessment will be revisited (annually minimum, sooner if circumstances change)

Practices that get this wrong typically miss step 5 or step 6 — they identify hazards but don't document the controls that bring the risk down, leaving an inspector unable to see why the residual risk is acceptable.

Common errors

Date-stamped once, never reviewed. A 4-year-old risk assessment is presumed not "suitable and sufficient" by an HSE inspector
No staff involvement — risk assessments written by the practice manager alone, no input from staff doing the actual work
No link to training — controls reference "staff trained" but no training record exists (link to your staff training records system)
Generic templates with vet-specific hazards missing — radiation, WAG, zoonoses absent
Lone working not assessed — common in small practices that take it as "the way we do things"
Pregnant/young workers not separately considered — additional duties under Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999

How risk assessment connects to other compliance

A vet practice risk assessment should cross-reference:

COSHH assessments — chemical and biological agents
SOPs — controls listed in risk assessments often need an SOP to be operational
RCVS Practice Standards Scheme — H&S is a core PSS standard
Controlled drugs compliance — CD handling is a specific risk
Clinical waste compliance — sharps and clinical waste handling are risk-assessable activities

Getting started

If you don't have a current set of risk assessments, the practical sequence:

List the hazards — use the 10 categories above as a checklist; add anything specific to your practice
Use the risk assessment tool to generate a starter assessment for each hazard
Walk through with the team — input from the staff doing the work catches things the manager misses
Score, document controls, identify gaps
Set a review schedule — calendarise annual review and trigger-based reviews (after incident, equipment change, staff change)
Connect to training — every control that says "staff trained" needs a training record to back it

This guide is general H&S compliance information for UK veterinary practices, not legal advice. For specific regulatory queries, consult the HSE veterinary services guidance, your Radiation Protection Adviser (where applicable), and your defence body.