Health, safety and environmental management, including risk assessment and incident investigation
Health, safety and environmental questions test whether you can identify hazards, apply the hierarchy of control and investigate an incident without stopping at blame. Hong Kong duties sit mainly in the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance and the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance, supported by codes and construction safety practice.
Core rules and concepts
- Risk assessment: identify hazards, decide who may be harmed and how, evaluate likelihood and severity, record controls and review. Use ALARP where risk cannot be eliminated.
- Hierarchy of control: eliminate, substitute, engineering controls, administrative controls, then PPE. PPE is the last line, not the first.
- Permits and isolation: permit-to-work, lock-out/tag-out, confined-space entry, hot work and work-at-height permits. Verify zero energy before work.
- Environmental control: prevent refrigerant release, control noise and dust, manage waste and trade effluent, and notify under the relevant ordinance.
- Incident investigation: preserve the scene, interview witnesses, separate immediate causes from root causes, use 5 Whys or barrier analysis, and track corrective actions to closure.
Worked example
A technician is injured when a pump starts during maintenance. Investigate. Reasoning: immediate cause - unexpected start with no isolation. The 5 Whys might show: why no isolation? No lock-out procedure for that pump. Why? The procedure covered electrical work only. Why? Risk assessment treated mechanical maintenance as low risk. Why? No maintenance-specific hazard review. Root causes therefore include an incomplete risk assessment and no lockout kit or training. Corrective actions: energy-isolation procedure covering all energy sources, locks and tags, training, supervision and a re-audit. Disciplinary action against the technician alone would not prevent recurrence.
Traps that cost marks
- Starting with PPE or discipline rather than controls.
- Treating a risk assessment as a paper exercise with no residual risk.
- Investigating only the immediate cause.
- Ignoring environmental release or notification duties.
- Closing corrective actions without verification.