CSCS General Responsibilities & Risk Assessment Questions
Your legal duties on site, risk assessments and method statements.
General Responsibilities & Risk Assessment — practice questions (untimed, instant feedback)
- 14 questions · pass mark 90%
- Untimed practice — you see the correct answer immediately after each question.
- Some questions need more than one answer — these are clearly marked.
All 14 General Responsibilities & Risk Assessment questions and answers
These are the same 14 questions as the practice test above, written out with the correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Read them through when you want to revise rather than test yourself.
1. As a worker, which of the following is NOT something the law requires of you?
Answer: Producing your own risk assessments
- A) Not tampering with anything supplied in the interests of health and safety
- B) Taking care of the health and safety of others who could be affected by what you do
- C) Taking reasonable care of your own health and safety
- D) Producing your own risk assessments (correct answer)
Why: Workers must look after themselves and others and not misuse safety provisions, but writing risk assessments is the employer's job, not the worker's.
2. What is the purpose of a risk assessment?
Answer: To identify the hazards and how to carry out the task safely
- A) To set out the procedure for reporting accidents
- B) To identify the hazards and how to carry out the task safely (correct answer)
- C) To state the working hours on site
- D) To show where the first-aid kit is kept
Why: A risk assessment identifies the hazards of a task and the safe way to do the job.
3. What is meant by the term 'hazard'?
Answer: Anything in the workplace with the potential to cause harm
- A) A guard or barrier fitted to a machine
- B) Anything in the workplace with the potential to cause harm (correct answer)
- C) The chance that something might happen
Why: A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm; the chance of it causing harm is the 'risk'.
4. What is the main danger of using a chisel or bolster with a mushroomed head?
Answer: Pieces can break off and fly out at speed
- A) Pieces can break off and fly out at speed (correct answer)
- B) The head forms a jagged edge that cuts your hand
- C) The shaft bends and strains your wrist
- D) You are more likely to strike your own hand
Why: A mushroomed head can shatter, throwing metal fragments — that is the main danger.
5. What must you be in order to operate a power tool?
Answer: Trained and competent
- A) Aged over 16
- B) Trained and competent (correct answer)
- C) A holder of a gold CSCS card
- D) Supervised at all times
Why: You must be trained and competent to use a power tool.
6. You are about to use an air-powered tool. Which three hazards are you most likely to face? (Choose three)
Answers: Airborne dust and flying particles, Hand-arm vibration and Leaking air hoses
- A) Airborne dust and flying particles (correct answer)
- B) Electric shock
- C) Hand-arm vibration (correct answer)
- D) Leaking air hoses (correct answer)
- E) Radiation
Why: Air tools bring dust and flying fragments, vibration and hose failures — but not electric shock or radiation.
7. Which of the following is NOT part of a safe system of work?
Answer: Professional trust
- A) A construction phase plan
- B) A health and safety policy
- C) A permit to work
- D) Professional trust (correct answer)
Why: A safe system of work relies on documented controls, not on trust.
8. How often does the HSE recommend that portable equipment, tools and leads are tested?
Answer: Every three months
- A) At the start of each project
- B) Weekly
- C) Yearly
- D) Every three months (correct answer)
Why: The HSE recommends portable site equipment such as 110V tools is tested around every three months.
9. What hazard does too much oxygen in the air create?
Answer: Materials become more flammable
- A) Breathing gets harder
- B) Fumes turn more toxic
- C) Injuries happen more easily
- D) Materials become more flammable (correct answer)
Why: An oxygen-enriched atmosphere makes materials ignite and burn far more easily.
10. What is every worker's primary responsibility on site?
Answer: To keep themselves and others safe
- A) To check the manager's paperwork
- B) To keep themselves and others safe (correct answer)
- C) To operate machinery when needed
- D) To manage the budget
Why: Workers must take care of their own safety and not put others at risk.
11. If you spot a hazard on site, what should you do first?
Answer: Report it to your supervisor
- A) Ignore it and carry on
- B) Report it to your supervisor (correct answer)
- C) Fix it yourself right away
- D) Mention it at break
Why: Report hazards to a supervisor so they can be dealt with properly.
12. Who has the main duty to provide a safe workplace?
Answer: The employer
- A) The HSE
- B) The site manager
- C) Each individual worker
- D) The employer (correct answer)
Why: The employer holds the primary legal duty for a safe working environment.
13. What should you do if asked to do a task you have not been trained for?
Answer: Refuse and tell your supervisor
- A) Refuse and tell your supervisor (correct answer)
- B) Attempt it carefully
- C) Copy a colleague
- D) Do it and ask for help if stuck
Why: Don't attempt untrained work — raise it with your supervisor.
14. Which document sets out the hazards and controls for a specific task?
Answer: The risk assessment
- A) The risk assessment (correct answer)
- B) The site diary
- C) The work schedule
- D) The staff handbook
Why: A risk assessment lists the task's hazards and the controls to manage them.
What this topic covers in the CSCS test
Almost every other topic in the test rests on two ideas from this one: everybody on site carries a legal duty, and every task gets planned before it starts. This section covers who is responsible for what under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and how a risk assessment turns a hazard into a job that can be done safely. Get it right and a lot of the rest of the syllabus follows from it.
- Employer duties under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
- Worker duties under sections 7 and 8, including not misusing anything provided for safety
- The difference between a hazard and a risk, and what a risk assessment is for
- The general principles of prevention, and why PPE ranks last among controls
- Safe systems of work: the health and safety policy, the construction phase plan, permits to work
- Reporting hazards, refusing untrained work, and stopping when conditions change
- Condition and inspection of hand tools and portable powered equipment
Key facts worth memorising
- The employer holds the main duty
- Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires every employer to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees so far as is reasonably practicable.
- Your duty as a worker
- Section 7 requires you to take reasonable care for yourself and for anyone affected by what you do, and to co-operate with your employer, but it does not require you to write risk assessments.
- Section 8 stands on its own
- No person may intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interests of health, safety or welfare, so removing a guard is an offence even if nobody is hurt.
- Hazard is not risk
- A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm; the risk is how likely that harm is and how serious it would be.
- Five or more employees
- At five or more employees the employer must record the significant findings of the risk assessment and must have a written health and safety policy.
- Collective controls beat individual ones
- Schedule 1 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires risks to be combated at source and collective protective measures to be given priority over individual ones.
- 110 V tools on site
- HSE recommends 110 V portable site equipment gets a user check weekly, a formal visual inspection monthly, and a combined inspection and test before first use on site and then every three months.
What people get wrong
Producing the risk assessment is part of my job as a worker.
The duty to make a suitable and sufficient assessment sits with the employer, and with self-employed people for their own work. Your job is to work to it and to speak up when the job on the ground stops matching it.
Being self-employed means the law does not apply to me.
Regulation 3(2) of the Management Regulations requires a self-employed person to assess the risks to themselves and to anyone else affected by their work.
If I can see a hazard I should just fix it myself.
Report it to your supervisor first. Something you are not trained or authorised to touch may need isolating, a permit, or a proper repair, and a quick fix can leave a worse hazard behind.
Experienced trades trusting each other counts as a safe system of work.
A safe system of work is documented: the risk assessment, the method statement, the permit to work and the construction phase plan. Trust is not a control measure.
Answering these questions in the test
When a question asks what you should do, look for the answer that stops the unsafe activity and tells somebody with authority. The test almost never rewards pressing on, improvising or sorting it out quietly. Watch the wording carefully in this section, because several questions list three genuine worker duties and one employer duty and ask you to spot the odd one out, and others ask which answer is false rather than true. If two options both look reasonable, choose the one that removes the hazard over the one that manages around it, because that ranking runs through the whole syllabus.
Sources
Written from the following. Where a figure could not be verified against one of these, it has been left out rather than approximated — our sources and methodology explains how we date and re-check them. Spotted something wrong? Report an error and we will fix it.
- legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/37/part/I/crossheading/general-duties
- legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/3242/regulation/3/made
- legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/3242/schedule/1/made
- hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/risk/steps-needed-to-manage-risk.htm
- hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/policy/index.htm
- hse.gov.uk/electricity/electricequip.htm
Topics that come up alongside general responsibilities & risk assessment
Ready for the real thing?
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