Identifying the Need For a Manual Handling Assessment
The employer must, in making risk assessments under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992, identify manual handling operations that pose significant risks to people's health or safety.
The employer must, so far as is reasonably practicable, avoid the need for his employees to undertake any manual handling operation where his risk assessment shows that such work involves a risk of their being injured.
The employer should consider avoidance of manual handling by eliminating the need for handling altogether or, if that cannot be arranged, by automation or mechanisation of the operation.
The employer must ensure that the health and safety risks of alternatives to manual handling are assessed and eliminated or controlled.