Free electrical risk assessment template (Word download)

For electricians, and for any trade working on or near electrical systems. This template records whether the work can be done dead, the safe isolation steps, who is competent to do the work, and the controls in place.

Download the electrical risk assessment template (.docx)

[DISCLAIMER — DRAFT, FOR SOLICITOR REVIEW] This template is a starting point only. You are responsible for assessing the risks of your own work, and for making sure any document you produce from it is suitable and sufficient for the task, the site and the people involved. It is not health and safety advice.

What's in the template

1. Document control
2. Work activity
3. Competence
4. Can the work be done dead? — the three conditions in regulation 14
5. Safe isolation — step by step, with sign-off
6. Other electrical hazards
7. Risk rating — before and after controls, on a 5 × 5 scale
8. Control measures
9. Test equipment
10. Emergency arrangements
11. Briefing record — sign-off sheet

Dead working is the default

Under regulation 14 of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, no one may work on or near a live conductor where danger may arise unless all three of these are true:

1. it is unreasonable in all the circumstances for it to be dead;
2. it is reasonable in all the circumstances to work on or near it while it is live; and
3. suitable precautions, including protective equipment where necessary, are taken to prevent injury.

If any one of them isn't met, the work must be done dead. The Regulations also require that people doing electrical work have the knowledge and experience to do it safely, or are properly supervised.

Safe isolation, in order

1. Identify the circuit or equipment.
2. Isolate the supply.
3. Secure the isolation — lock off, label, keep the key.
4. Prove your voltage indicator works on a known live source.
5. Test that the circuit is dead.
6. Prove the voltage indicator again on the known live source.

Steps 4 and 6 matter: a faulty tester that reads "dead" is one of the most dangerous failures in electrical work. The HSE publishes guidance on safe working practices (HSG85) and on electrical test equipment (GS38).

Not an electrician?

Most trades still work near electricity — drilling into walls, working under overhead lines, digging near buried cables, using portable tools. Record those hazards in section 6, and in your RAMS.