Free noise risk assessment template

The Noise Regs require an employer to have a noise risk assessment in place and a noise assessment forms part of that, indeed it is the majority of it.

Noise assessment vs noise risk assessment

Although they sound the same there is a wee difference between the two.

Noise assessment

A noise assessment (or noise survey) is the act of measuring the noise exposure levels, identifying who is at risk, identifying some possible measures to reduce noise, identifying who needs hearing protection, training and hearing testing, and specifying the strength of the hearing protection.

The noise assessment is usually the chunky and most important part of managing noise at work - this identifies all your risks and suggests some controls for it.

Noise risk assessment

A noise risk assessment is what you are actually planning to do about it and that is why only the employer can produce the actual final noise risk assessment. I can measure your noise risks, tell you what they are, make recommendations on hearing protection, noise training, health surveillance and possible noise controls, but only the employer can decide which of those they are actually going to do and when.

The noise risk assessment therefore includes information on:

• The noise assessment identifying noise exposure levels, hearing protection requirements, health surveillance needs, signage, etc. This is the noise assessment report I provide.

• The health surveillance records and key outcomes. Your noise risk assessment will say what is in place to manage this, who manages it, when is it next due. Importantly, this also where you may identify if you have people who are especially at risk because of other issues such as already-poor hearing. Your health surveillance provider should advise who this applies to.

• Training records for noise safety. When was it done, when is it next due, who is responsible for it, how do you cover new starters.

• PPE records, covering selection, issuing and monitoring system to check usage.

• Any planned maintenance works impacting on noise safety.

• What you are planning on doing in the future to look at possible noise reduction measures. Document what you are planning to look at - you are saying you will consider it, not that you will definitely do it. If you decide something is not practicable then that’s fine, but record that you looked at it. That way you have an ongoing record of noise risk management.

• Whether you have ‘buying quiet’ as a factor in the systems for purchasing new machinery.

Keep the actual noise risk assessment simple

But, I cannot stress this enough - a noise risk assessment is exceedingly simple. The vast bulk of the work is two documents, the noise assessment I provide, and your health screening records. You do not have to rewrite a massive risk assessment! The noise risk assessment can simply be a basic document referencing those other noise safety measures in place. It is basically a very simple management tool saying ‘we have X in place, it will be redone on X date’.

A noise risk assessment is not very complex and is basically just a bit of admin, creating one document which references all the various bits of noise safety such as the noise assessment’s findings, noise training, hearing testing, PPE, etc., and pulls it all into one document. Your noise assessment and health surveillance records (if you do it) forms the vast bulk of the work.

IMPORTANT: You do not need to write everything out again so no need to spend time rewriting all the noise exposure levels again - just refer back to the noise assessment report and say all the info is there. A noise risk assessment really is a simple management document referencing everything and saying how it is managed and by whom.

There is a free template below which gives you a noise risk assessment document, but this is an example completed one which may help explain what I am babbling on about:

Link: Completed noise risk assessment example