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HHSRS - the 29 Hazards

The Housing Health and Safety Rating System - HHSRS - is the statutory means of assessing whether a house is safe for occupation.

There are 29 listed hazards that can be grouped into four categories:

• Physiological
• Psychological
• Infection
• Safety

See below for examples of:

• Falls on stairs
• Excess cold

The 29 hazards are:

Table above: Four categories of hazards

Examples:

Fall on stairs

Defects noted contributing to hazard: Open risers Varnished treads - slippery surface Lack of any handrail/banisters to bottom flight Ranch style banisters to the upper flight with gaps of 250mm. Significant departures from standards required by the Building Regulations. Related hazards noted that increase likelihood: Collision with the glazed door opening onto the foot of the stairs Hard floor surface to ground floor below the stairs. Significant fall off stairs to side

Table above: photo and description of defects and hazards - stairs

Justification for changing the likelihood/class of harm:

This set of stairs is an accident waiting to happen. The varnished treads significantly increases the likelihood of a slip and the open risers increases the chance of a young child slipping between. The lack of any banisters to the lower flight offers no barrier to arrest a fall and the ranch style banisters elsewhere would be particularly attractive for climbing on by a young child with the resultant risk of falling over the bannisters. With the door at the foot of the lower flight there is an increased chance of falling into the glazed door or of the door being opened onto the stairs and into somebody walking down them - separate Collision & Entrapment hazard.

The floor onto which someone would fall is laminate boarding therefore is an “unforgiving” surface thus possibly increasing the severity of injury. However the presence of glazing should reduce the possibility of being hit by the opening door when coming down the stairs and as the glazing is toughened glass in small panes it is not believed that there should be any departure from the spread of health outcomes already modelled.

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Excess cold

Defects noted contributing to Hazard This is a two storey terraced house with a kitchen constructed as a "lean-to" across the rear of the property. It has a gas fired wet central heating system with radiators to all the main rooms and circulation spaces. The following defects have been identified: The kitchen roof is a pitched single layer of corrugated plastic sheet, the central heating boiler is approximately 23 years old and, for the last 2 years, has had a history of intermittent operation and breakdown, the main roof space is insulated with glass fibre roll but to only an original thickness of 100mm which has compressed to an average of 60mm the windows to all three bedrooms of the house are fixed panes with louvres over, all in single glazing.

Table above: photos and descriptions of defects contributing to an excess cold hazard

Justification for changing the likelihood/class of harm:

• In this property, the likelihood of the vulnerable group being exposed to excessively low temperatures is significantly higher than that normally expected in a house of this age. There is a lack of effective roof space insulation compared with current standards which will lead to excessive heat loss from the house.
• The kitchen roof offers virtually no resistance to heat loss such that that room is always likely to be cold in the winter months.
• The central heating boiler appears to be in a significant state of disrepair and is very likely to fail again over the next 12 months, thus rendering the house with no heating provision at all.
• The bedroom windows are all draughty due to the louvered openings and, being single glazing, are unable to adequately prevent heat loss.

All these factors combine to an extent that it is highly likely that, over the next 12 months, significantly low room temperatures will occur during cold weather. Whilst the likelihood of exposure to the hazard significantly increases it is unlikely that the harm suffered will be worse than is normally expected.

Table above: class of harm weightings

Table above: calculating the hazard score

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Please see the downloadable poster style DASH publication on the 29 Hazards found on the downloads page.