Risk Assessment Document

The Risk Assessment Document (DVR) is a document that contains the analysis and evaluation of health and safety risks generated by work activities carried out within the company. The purpose of the document is to ensure workplace safety for employees and anyone accessing it, by identifying risks that can lead to accidents or occupational diseases, and the prevention and protection measures to be adopted.

MANDATORY REQUIREMENT

As required by the Consolidated Law on Worker Safety, Legislative Decree 81/08, the DVR is mandatory in all companies with at least one employee. For companies with multiple locations, as the DVR is specific to each workplace, a Risk Assessment Document must be prepared for each of them.

Failure to assess risks, and the consequent absence of the DVR, constitutes a serious violation that exposes the Employer to penalties and the suspension of business activity in the event of an inspection by regulatory bodies.

WHO PREPARES THE ASSESSMENT?

The Risk Assessment, as established by Article 17 of Legislative Decree 81/2008, is one of the non-delegable obligations of the Employer, who may be assisted in drafting the Document by the Prevention and Protection Service, through its Manager (RSPP), and by the Competent Doctor.

For these reasons, the Document bears the signature of the Employer, as well as the Competent Doctor and the RSPP, who collaborate in its drafting, and the Workers' Safety Representative, for their awareness, acting as a spokesperson for the workers themselves.

CONTENTS

The Risk Assessment Document is the result of a specific analysis of the workplace and the processes carried out within it. For this reason, there are no standard contents, as these emerge from the particularity of the analysis. However, the Consolidated Law on Safety identifies the following minimum contents in Article 28, paragraph 2:

• A report on the assessment of all health and safety risks during work activity, specifying the criteria adopted for the assessment itself. The choice of criteria for drafting the document is left to the employer, who must ensure simplicity, brevity, and comprehensibility, to guarantee its completeness and suitability as an operational tool for planning company interventions and prevention;
• The indication of the prevention and protection measures implemented and the personal protective equipment adopted, following the assessment referred to in Article 17, paragraph 1, letter a);
• The program of measures deemed appropriate to ensure the improvement of safety levels over time;
• The identification of procedures for implementing the measures to be carried out, as well as the roles within the company organization responsible for them, to whom only individuals with adequate skills and powers must be assigned;
• The indication of the name of the head of the prevention and protection service, the workers' safety representative (or the territorial one), and the competent doctor who participated in the risk assessment; f) the identification of tasks that may expose workers to specific risks requiring recognized professional capacity, specific experience, adequate training, and instruction.

UPDATE

The DVR, unlike specific assessments, does NOT have an expiration date: it remains valid as long as the assessments contained within it continue to reflect the work environment and methods.

Article 29, paragraph 3 of Legislative Decree 81/2008 states:

"The risk assessment must be immediately re-evaluated, in compliance with the procedures referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, in the event of significant changes to the production process or work organization for the health and safety of workers, or in relation to the degree of evolution of technology, prevention, or protection, or following significant accidents, or when the results of health surveillance indicate the need. Following such re-evaluation, prevention measures must be updated. In the cases referred to in the preceding paragraphs, the risk assessment document must be re-evaluated, in compliance with the procedures referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, within thirty days of the respective causes. Even in the event of a re-evaluation of the risks, the employer must in any case immediately provide evidence, through suitable documentation, of the update of the prevention measures and immediate communication to the workers' safety representative. The workers' safety representative has access to this documentation upon request."