Why self-assessment?

HSE has produced this self-assessment software to help improve the health and safety record of an industry that has one of the worst fatal accident levels. In the ten-year period from 1996/97 to 2005/06, 489 people have been killed as a result of agricultural work activities and several thousand more have been injured or become ill. This means an average of almost 50 people each year - or one person a week - are killed in agriculture.

The main causes of death continue to be:

• transport (eg being run over or vehicle overturns)
• falling from a height (eg through fragile roofs or roof lights)
• contact with moving/unguarded machinery
• being struck by falling or moving objects (eg falling bales)
• livestock-related
• electrocution (eg overhead power lines or poorly maintained electrical installations).

This self-assessment software will provide you with a step-by-step route into learning about what you need to do to protect your health and safety and to comply with the law without being overwhelmed.

About the software

You will be asked a number of questions on key health and safety topics. Each question contains a benchmark that represents the minimum standards you should be reaching. You will be asked whether you meet each benchmark and, if not, what you propose to do to bring yourself up to the required standards. For each action you will be asked to provide an 'action by date' - at the end of the assessment you will be able to print off your list of actions.

This software has been designed primarily to help you perform a health and safety assessment, but HSE hopes it will also raise levels of health and safety awareness in the industry. It is not a test and has not been designed to 'catch you out'. We hope you will find it a useful tool to improve your awareness of health and safety and to reduce the risk of accidents on your farm.

Results from recent evaluation carried out in late 2007 discovered that it took users an average of two hours to complete their farm assessment using the software. This compared to an average of 5 hours to complete a risk assessment without the software – a saving in time of over 50%!