6.5 Manual handling risk assessments

Manual handling means transporting or supporting a load by hand or bodily force. It includes lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving loads. A load can be an object, person or animal.

The law sets out how employers must deal with risks from manual handling:

avoid hazardous manual handling, so far as reasonably practicable
assess the risk of injury from any hazardous manual handling operations that cannot be avoided
reduce the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling to as low as reasonably practicable

Managers must ensure that manual handling operations are risk assessed, taking account of the TILEO hazards:

Task
Individual
Load
Environment
Other Factors

The HSE provides guidance on manual handling risk assessment; See HSE manual handling

For straightforward tasks, manual handling can be included in general risk assessments - makesure you consider all the relevant TILEO hazards.

The manual handling operations - task specific risk assessment form can also be used:

Manual handling operations - task specific risk assessment form - DOC 171.5 KB [69 KB]

For more complex manual handling operations, use of the HSE MAC Tool is recommended.