An Introduction to the Housing Health and Safety Rating System - HHSRS

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Download a Landlord's Guide to HHSRS [539kb]
View the HHSRS Worked Examples on our Downloads Page

View information on the The 29 Hazards

Why HHSRS?
HHSRS Assessments
The assessment process

Why HHSRS?

Concerns about the current fitness standard being inadequate to properly reflect defects in dwellings, particularly in the limited type of “problems" it covers, it being a simple pass/fail method of assessment and the perceived degree of subjectivity involved

New emerging agendas in housing & health, for example: home accidents, increased winter deaths & hospital bed-blocking

At it’s core, the HHSRS reflects a change in approach from looking at total property condition to one where the focus is on identifying and assessing the seriousness of hazards arising from property defects –either through poor design, something missing or lack of repair etc.

The aim of the HHSRS is that all properties, including gardens, outbuildings etc will provide safe accommodation for the occupiers and visitors.

HHSRS Assessments

When carrying out assessments, each is determined having reference to the “vulnerable” group i.e. those persons who, by age, are most susceptible to suffering harm from the hazard in question.

When using the HHSRS, you don’t assess the dwelling for the current occupiers.
Additional vulnerability due to physical disability etc is not taken into account with the HHSRS
The basis is that if a property is “safe” for the most vulnerable, it will be safe for anybody
It is an assessment tool, not a standard
No property will ever be hazard-free –it’s all about acceptable risk and unacceptable risk
Or typical and a-typical

Flow chart showing the HSSRS assessment process

What are the defects?

What hazards arise from these defects?

How likely is the occurrence of the hazard? (Likelihood)

What harm could occur as a result of the hazard? (Outcome)

Calculate hazard score

The assessment process

For each hazard:

A definition
Its potential for harm is described
Vulnerable group is identified
The ‘ideal’ is defined
Relevant features described
Guidance given on matters to be considered

Are there any defects present which give rise to a given hazard?

For this hazard a judgement is made about how likely it is to occur over the next 12 months and, if it did, what the level of harm involved would be
This information is provided for different property ages and types so some basic information is available as a yardstick

What the assessor has to judge is whether, in the property in question, the occurrence of the hazard is more or less likely and whether it is likely to give rise to more, or less, serious harm than the average expected for the property age & type

The assessment produces a hazard score
There is no facility to combine scores or arrive at a single rating for a property
Each hazard identified carries it’s own individual hazard score –if 4 hazards are identified, there’ll be 4 hazard scores

Deficiencies, defects and faults

A defect in an element of the property construction, lack of facilities, a missing part (s) etc
A deviation from the ideal standard
Something in disrepair
Poor design

The ideal standard

“The perceived optimum standard, at the time of the assessment, intended to prevent, avoid or minimise the hazard” (Version 2 Guidance)
OR
The conditions that, if they exist, will ensure that the risk (hazard score) is at it’s lowest level possible
No dwelling will ever be without risk
Often Building Regulations Approved Documents or British Standards
Recognised “health & safety” standards
Version 2 Guidance indicates all users of the HHSRS will need to keep up to date on any changes

Vulnerable groups

Somebody who is more likely to suffer ill effects arising from a hazard in a property than the population in general
Each hazard has a vulnerable group attributed to it
Vulnerable groups are, for many hazards, the very young (under 5's) or the elderly
For others, it is the population in general
When carrying out hazard ratings it is important not to become distracted by who is, or isn't, actually living in a property as the eventual scoring will be pre-based upon information around risk to the vulnerable group(s) anyway.

What is likelihood?

“The probability of an occurrence (of the hazard) during the 12 month period following the assessment that could cause harm” (Version 2 Guidance)
OR
The chance of the occurrence of the hazard that could do something nasty to you or give you something you’d rather not have

Health Outcomes and Classes of Harm

Guidance is given on the normal or expected severity of outcomes following exposure to each hazard

The health effects that “happen in real life”
Shown as %’s across 4 groups, reflecting increasing harm
- Extreme (class i) for example, death
- Severe (class ii) for example, serious fracture
- Serious (class iii) for example, mild heart attack
- Moderate (class iv) for example, severe bruising

	Class of Harm	Weighting
In the hazard score calculation, each of the % figures in the 4 classes is multiplied by a weighting	1	10,000
	2	1,000
This is intended to reflect the relative severity of that particular class of harm against the others	3	300
	4	10

table above: class of harm outcomes

Hazard score

Likelihood		Class of harm outcome (enter as a % number only)
Likelihood		Class l A	Weight B	Class ll C	Weight D	Class lll E	Weight F	Class lV G	Weight H
National average	256	1.6	10,000	6.6	1,000	21.6	300	70.3	10
Insert actual	1	2.2	10,000	4.6	1,000	21.5	300	71.7	10