Biological Risk Assessment: Guidance & Templates

A risk assessment is required not only for work with biological agents but also with materials that may contain these. 

The Biological Risk Assessment Templatecreated by the Safety office is the recommended template for such risk assessments, as required by COSHH. 

If assessing work with genetically modified organisms use the appropriate GM risk assessment form:

GM Risk Assessment Proformas

Overview

Contact your departmental BSO. The earlier the BSO knows about the project, the faster the project will be reviewed and approved by the departmental H&S committee where required. The BSO will also advise whether the work might need to be ‘registered’ with certain agencies/government bodies (eg notification) or a licence be obtained.

  • A risk assessment must be carried out for all micro-organisms/biological material being used deliberately in departments irrespective of their hazard group. The completion of the risk assessment will document the level and nature of the risk and will finally allow the risk assessor to specify the final classification/containment level for the project.

  • The use of the new Bio RA template is not mandatory, however the Safety Office strongly recommends the adoption and use of this new template to BSOs. It might be particularly useful in non-biological departments. The Safety Office is not proposing that all RAs are put into the new format immediately but that if a RA has a substantial update it could be an opportunity to move over to using the new University template.

  • The use of a consistent universal Bio RA template is of benefit to all researchers within the University, especially when reviewing documents across multiple departments, when auditing documents and when working on collaborative projects.

  • The template covers some aspects of the Human Tissue Act. Where it is clear that the department will never work with human specimen of any kind, we allow departments to ‘delete’ this dedicated section to make the template more specific for their department. However, the BSO must be aware that when this changes and the department wants to start working with human specimen, that the relevant section is re-inserted into their risk assessment.

  • This template is the University’s minimum standard and has been designed to reflect the large variety of biological research being carried out in the University.

  • The BSO, in consultation with the departmental biological Health & Safety committee, will have the final decision what containment level is given to a project.

Further advice is available from either the Schools’ Safety Officers in the first instance or the Biological Safety team in the Safety Office.