Assessment details
Site or route being assessed
Roles and shifts covered e.g. night fill crew 10pm to 6am, on-call fault response
Minimum overnight headcount The lowest number of workers on site at once, including one
Assessor and date
Review date
Night-specific hazards
Tick every factor present. Anything ticked goes into the risk table with a control.
- Workers are alone or in pairs for all or part of the shift
- No manager or supervisor on site overnight
- Opening, closing or lock-up performed by one person
- Cash counted, moved or banked outside trading hours
- Car park, entry or perimeter poorly lit or out of sight
- Public access continues overnight (emergency departments, fuel, transport hubs)
- More intoxication and aggression in the client or customer mix after dark
- Emergency services response is slower than during the day
- Alarm or security monitoring cover differs after hours
- Fatigue from shift length, rotation pattern or second jobs
- Travel to or from work in the dark, including public transport
- On-call staff attend sites alone with no one aware they have arrived
Risk rating and controls
Rate likelihood and consequence as low, medium or high. Anything rated high after existing controls needs further controls and a named owner.
| Hazard | Who is exposed | Rating | Existing controls | Further controls and owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Controls for after-hours work
Common controls for the hazards above, strongest first. Tick what is in place and record owners for the rest.
- Reschedule tasks that do not need to happen overnight into staffed hours
- Two people rostered for closing, cash movements and known high-risk periods
- A monitored duress alarm or safety app carried by every worker on site outside staffed hours
- Overnight check-in schedule with a documented response to a missed check-in
- Lighting on car parks, entries and paths, checked on a schedule and after failures
- Doors locked after [time] with controlled entry, not propped open for airflow
- Escort or pairing to vehicles at shift end
- On-call staff log arrival and departure at every site attendance
- Fatigue limits on shift length and consecutive nights, with a rule for call-outs after midnight
- After-hours contact tree tested, not assumed
After-hours escalation
Overnight check-in contact and schedule
Missed check-in response Who does what, within how many minutes
Emergency number 111
After-hours manager escalation
Security or patrol provider and response time, if used
Sign off and review
Completed by [assessor], approved by [manager] on [date]. Review by [date], after any overnight incident or near miss, or when hours, staffing or the site change.
Walk the site at night as part of this assessment. A daytime walkthrough of a night shift misses the point.