Landscaping Risk Assessment: What to Include and How to Write One

TL;DR

A generic risk assessment is not good enough for landscaping — your work involves powered equipment, chemicals, manual handling, noise, vibration, work at height, lone working, and biological hazards that need specific controls.

In the UK, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require you to assess risks. If you have five or more employees, the findings must be recorded in writing. In Ireland, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 requires every employer to have a written safety statement regardless of size.

Additional regulations apply directly to landscaping: PUWER 1998 (equipment), Work at Height Regulations 2005, Noise at Work Regulations 2005, and Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005.

A landscaping risk assessment must cover at least ten hazard categories: powered equipment, manual handling, work at height, chemical exposure (COSHH), noise, hand-arm vibration, vehicles and towing, weather, lone working, and biological hazards.

HSE inspectors want to see that your assessment is specific to the work you actually do, that controls are practical and in use, and that you review it regularly.

Introduction — Why a Generic Risk Assessment Will Not Work for Landscaping

If you run a landscaping or grounds maintenance business, you already know the work is physically demanding and varied. One morning you might be mowing a domestic lawn with a push mower. By the afternoon you could be operating a chipper on a commercial site, mixing herbicide, or trimming a hedge from a platform. The hazards change from job to job, sometimes from hour to hour.

That is exactly why downloading a generic risk assessment template from the internet, filling in a few blanks, and filing it away will not cut it. A one-size-fits-all document written for an office or a warehouse does not cover the specific risks that landscapers face every day — things like hand-arm vibration from prolonged strimmer use, chainsaw kickback, chemical exposure from glyphosate-based herbicides, or the risk of Lyme disease from working in areas with tick populations.

Your risk assessment needs to reflect the actual work your team carries out, the equipment you use, the sites you visit, and the people who could be affected. That is what this guide is for.

If you are new to risk assessments in general, start with our complete risk assessment guide for small businesses. For a broader look at health and safety obligations specific to the landscaping trade, see our guide on health and safety for landscaping businesses. This article focuses specifically on what goes into a landscaping risk assessment and how to write one that will satisfy both your legal obligations and a visiting inspector.

Legal Requirements

Before getting into the detail of what to assess, it is worth understanding what the law actually requires of you. The obligations differ slightly between the UK and Ireland, and there are several sets of regulations beyond the core health and safety acts that apply directly to landscaping work.

United Kingdom

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA) places a general duty on every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of employees and anyone else affected by the work — including clients, members of the public, and subcontractors on the same site.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR) set out the specific requirement to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. If you employ five or more people, you must record the significant findings in writing. If you employ fewer than five, the legal obligation to assess still exists — you simply are not required to write it down. That said, you should write it down anyway. Without a written record, you have no evidence of compliance if you are ever inspected or face a civil claim.

On top of those core requirements, several sets of regulations are directly relevant to landscaping:

Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) — covers the safe selection, maintenance, and use of all work equipment, from mowers to chainsaws.
Work at Height Regulations 2005 — applies whenever there is a risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury, including ladder use, tree surgery, and hedge trimming from elevated platforms.
Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 — sets daily and weekly noise exposure limits and requires employers to take action at specific thresholds.
Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 — sets exposure action and limit values for hand-arm vibration, which is a major concern when using strimmers, hedge cutters, chainsaws, and other powered hand tools.
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) — requires a separate assessment for every hazardous substance you use, including herbicides, pesticides, fertilisers, fuels, and oils.

Ireland

Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (SHWW Act), every employer must carry out a risk assessment and prepare a written safety statement based on it. There is no exemption for small businesses — even if you employ a single person, you need the written document. The safety statement must identify the hazards, assess the risks, and set out the protective and preventive measures in place.

Ireland’s regulatory framework mirrors many of the UK-specific regulations listed above, with equivalent statutory instruments covering work equipment, noise, vibration, chemicals, and work at height.

What This Means in Practice

Whether you are based in the UK or Ireland, the message is the same: you need a risk assessment that is specific to landscaping work, covers all of the relevant hazard categories, and is kept up to date. If you are a sole trader or you employ fewer than five people, you may not be legally required to write it down in the UK — but practically speaking, you should treat it as mandatory. It is the single most important document in your health and safety file.

The HSE 5-Step Process Applied to Landscaping

The HSE’s well-known 5-step approach provides a solid framework for structuring your landscaping risk assessment. Here is how each step applies to the trade.

Step 1 — Identify the Hazards

Walk through every type of work your business carries out and list the hazards. For landscaping, this means thinking about powered equipment, manual handling tasks, work at height, chemical use, noise, vibration, vehicles, weather, lone working, and biological hazards. We cover each of these in detail in the next section.

Do not just think about the routine jobs. Consider seasonal work (leaf clearance in autumn, gritting in winter), one-off tasks (tree removal, hard landscaping), and the transitions between jobs (loading and unloading equipment, driving between sites, towing trailers).

Step 2 — Decide Who Might Be Harmed and How

For each hazard, consider who is at risk. This typically includes:

Your employees and subcontractors — the people doing the work.
Clients and their families — especially children and pets on domestic sites.
Members of the public — pedestrians passing a work area, people using adjacent paths or spaces.
Other contractors on site — if you are working alongside builders, electricians, or other trades.
Vulnerable groups — young workers, new starters, pregnant employees, people with pre-existing health conditions.

Step 3 — Evaluate the Risks and Decide on Precautions

For each hazard, assess the likelihood of harm occurring and the severity if it does. Then decide what controls are needed. Follow the hierarchy of controls: eliminate the hazard if possible, substitute with something less dangerous, use engineering controls, then administrative controls, and finally personal protective equipment (PPE) as a last resort.

Step 4 — Record Your Findings and Implement Them

Write it down. Record the hazards, who is at risk, the existing controls, any additional controls needed, who is responsible for implementing them, and the target date. Make sure the people doing the work know about the assessment and the controls. A risk assessment that lives in a filing cabinet and never gets communicated to your team is worthless.

Step 5 — Review and Update Regularly

Your risk assessment is a living document. Review it at least annually, and update it whenever something significant changes — new equipment, new chemicals, a new type of work, an accident or near miss, a change in legislation, or a change in your workforce.

Specific Hazards to Assess

This is the core of your landscaping risk assessment. Each of the following hazard categories needs its own section in your document, with specific controls tailored to the work you do.

Powered Equipment

Landscaping relies heavily on powered equipment, and most of the serious injuries in the trade involve machinery. Your assessment needs to cover every piece of equipment your business uses. Common items include:

Ride-on and walk-behind mowers — blade contact, ejected objects, rollovers on slopes
Chainsaws — kickback, chain breakage, cuts to legs and arms
Strimmers and brush cutters — flying debris, eye injuries, soft tissue lacerations
Hedge cutters — blade contact, cuts, overreach injuries
Chippers and shredders — entanglement, draw-in injuries, ejected material
Leaf blowers — noise, dust and debris inhalation

For each piece of equipment, your risk assessment should address:

Guarding — are all factory guards and safety devices in place and functioning? PUWER 1998 specifically requires that dangerous parts of machinery are guarded to prevent access.
Training and competence — is every operator trained and competent to use the equipment? Chainsaw work in particular requires certificated training (NPTC/City and Guilds or equivalent).
Maintenance — is there a documented maintenance schedule? Are pre-use checks carried out daily? Blunt blades, worn chains, and damaged guards are common causes of incidents.
PPE — as a minimum, this typically includes safety boots with steel toecaps, eye protection (visor or safety glasses), hearing protection, gloves, and close-fitting clothing. For chainsaw work, add chainsaw trousers or chaps, a helmet with visor and ear defenders, and chainsaw boots.

Do not forget about refuelling. Petrol-powered equipment should be refuelled with the engine off, outdoors, and away from ignition sources. Fuel containers must be properly labelled and stored.

Manual Handling

Landscaping involves a significant amount of heavy lifting and carrying, often on uneven ground. Common manual handling tasks include:

Lifting and carrying turf rolls (a standard roll weighs around 20–25 kg)
Moving paving slabs (individual slabs can weigh 25–40 kg or more depending on size and material)
Handling bags of soil, compost, or aggregate (typically 20–25 kg per bag)
Loading and unloading equipment from vehicles and trailers
Moving wheelbarrows loaded with soil, rubble, or green waste
Dragging branches and timber after tree or hedge work

Your risk assessment should consider whether the task can be avoided altogether (can materials be delivered directly to where they are needed?), whether mechanical aids can be used (sack trucks, wheelbarrows, mini diggers), and whether the load can be reduced (use smaller bags, split heavy items between two people).

Where manual handling cannot be avoided, record the controls: correct lifting technique training, task rotation to avoid fatigue, use of gloves for grip, ensuring clear and level walkways, and setting weight limits for individual lifts. The HSE does not set a single legal maximum weight, but its guidance suggests that most men should not regularly lift more than 25 kg and most women not more than 16 kg under ideal conditions — and conditions on a landscaping site are rarely ideal.

Work at Height

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply whenever there is a risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury. In landscaping, this includes:

Tree surgery and pruning — working from ladders, mobile elevated work platforms (MEWPs), or climbing harnesses
Hedge trimming — using step ladders, platform ladders, or scaffolding to reach the top of tall hedges
Working near roof edges — when carrying out garden or grounds maintenance adjacent to buildings
Loading vehicles — climbing onto flatbed trucks or trailers to secure loads

The regulations require you to avoid work at height where possible, use the safest practicable means of access where it cannot be avoided, and ensure that any equipment used for work at height is suitable, stable, and properly maintained.

Ladders should only be used for short-duration work (up to 30 minutes in one position) and only where a more stable platform is not reasonably practicable. Three points of contact must be maintained when climbing. Step ladders must be fully opened, locked, and placed on firm, level ground.

For tree surgery, competence requirements are particularly stringent. Climbers must hold the relevant NPTC/City and Guilds certificates, use appropriate harnesses and ropes, and have a ground-based colleague acting as a lookout at all times. Aerial rescue procedures must be in place before any climbing work begins.

Chemical Exposure (COSHH)

If your business uses any hazardous substances — and almost every landscaping business does — you need a COSHH assessment for each one. This is a separate requirement under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, but it should be referenced in your main risk assessment. For detailed guidance on COSHH, see our COSHH assessment guide.

Common substances in landscaping include:

Herbicides — including glyphosate-based products (such as Roundup), which require careful handling, appropriate PPE (chemical-resistant gloves, eye protection, face shield if spraying), and compliance with label instructions
Pesticides and fungicides — many require PA1/PA6 certification for professional use
Fertilisers — granular and liquid forms, some of which can cause skin and eye irritation
Fuel and oil — petrol, diesel, two-stroke oil, chain oil, hydraulic fluid — all of which pose dermatitis, fire, and environmental contamination risks
Preservatives and paints — used on fencing, decking, and timber structures

For each substance, your COSHH assessment should record the hazard (using the Safety Data Sheet from the manufacturer), the route of exposure (inhalation, skin contact, ingestion), the people at risk, and the controls in place — storage, handling procedures, PPE, spill kits, and disposal.

Our Landscaping Kit is available now — it includes ready-to-use COSHH assessment templates pre-populated for 8 common landscaping chemicals. View the kit or download a free sample to see the quality.

Noise

Landscaping is one of the noisiest trades. Prolonged exposure to high noise levels causes irreversible hearing damage, and it is one of the most common occupational health problems in the sector.

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 set two key thresholds:

Lower exposure action value: 80 dB(A) daily or weekly average — at this level, you must make hearing protection available and provide information and training on noise risks.
Upper exposure action value: 85 dB(A) daily or weekly average — at this level, you must ensure hearing protection is worn, designate hearing protection zones, and take steps to reduce noise exposure.
Exposure limit value: 87 dB(A) — this must not be exceeded, taking into account the effect of any hearing protection worn.

To put those numbers in context, here are typical noise levels for common landscaping equipment:

Ride-on mower: 85–100 dB(A)
Walk-behind mower: 82–95 dB(A)
Chainsaw: 100–115 dB(A)
Strimmer/brush cutter: 95–105 dB(A)
Hedge cutter: 90–105 dB(A)
Chipper/shredder: 95–110 dB(A)
Leaf blower: 85–105 dB(A)

Almost every piece of powered equipment used in landscaping exceeds the lower action value of 80 dB(A), and most exceed the upper action value of 85 dB(A). Your risk assessment needs to record the noise levels of your specific equipment (these should be in the manufacturer’s documentation), calculate or estimate daily exposure, and set out the controls — hearing protection (ear defenders or moulded ear plugs), job rotation to limit exposure time, maintenance to keep equipment running quietly, and selection of lower-noise equipment where available.

Hand-Arm Vibration (HAV)

Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is a serious and permanent condition caused by regular and prolonged use of vibrating hand-held tools. It affects blood circulation, nerves, and joints in the hands and arms, and it is a significant occupational health risk in landscaping.

The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 set two key values:

Exposure action value (EAV): 2.5 m/s² A(8) — at this level, you must take action to reduce exposure.
Exposure limit value (ELV): 5 m/s² A(8) — this must not be exceeded.

The A(8) figure is a daily exposure value standardised to an eight-hour working day. It takes into account both the vibration magnitude of the tool and the length of time it is used.

Typical vibration levels for landscaping equipment:

Chainsaw: 4–8 m/s² (depending on model, condition, and chain sharpness)
Strimmer/brush cutter: 3–7 m/s²
Hedge cutter: 3–6 m/s²
Leaf blower (handheld): 2–5 m/s²
Plate compactor: 5–12 m/s²

These figures mean that an operator using a chainsaw at 6 m/s² can reach the EAV of 2.5 m/s² A(8) in as little as approximately 15 minutes, and the ELV of 5 m/s² A(8) in around one hour of use. Strimmer use at 5 m/s² reaches the EAV in roughly 20 minutes.

Your risk assessment should record the vibration magnitude of each tool (from manufacturer data or the HSE’s vibration database), calculate or estimate daily exposure using the HSE’s exposure calculator, and set out controls: limiting daily trigger time, rotating operators between vibrating and non-vibrating tasks, maintaining tools to reduce vibration (sharp chains and blades, replacing worn anti-vibration mounts), using low-vibration equipment where possible, and providing health surveillance for exposed workers.

Vehicles and Towing

Driving between sites, towing trailers, and loading and unloading vehicles are all part of the working day for most landscaping businesses — and they come with their own set of risks.

Your assessment should cover:

Driving for work — ensuring drivers hold the correct licence category (especially for towing), vehicle maintenance and roadworthiness, driver fatigue management, and mobile phone policies.
Towing trailers — correct matching of vehicle and trailer (towing capacity, nose weight), trailer maintenance and lighting, load security, and competence in reversing and manoeuvring.
Loading and unloading — safe use of ramps, securing equipment during transit (ratchet straps, wheel chocks), and the manual handling risks of lifting heavy items onto and off vehicles.
On-site vehicle movements — reversing on sites with pedestrians, uneven ground, overhead cables, and restricted visibility.

If you tow a trailer with a combined maximum authorised mass exceeding 3,500 kg, drivers who passed their test after 1 January 1997 will need a Category BE licence or to have passed the relevant additional test.

Weather

Landscaping is predominantly outdoor work, and weather conditions can create or worsen hazards throughout the year.

Heat and UV exposure — during summer months, there is a real risk of heat stress, sunburn, and long-term skin damage. Controls include scheduling heavy physical work for cooler parts of the day, ensuring access to drinking water and shade, providing sunscreen (SPF 30+), and training workers to recognise the signs of heat exhaustion.
Cold — hypothermia and reduced dexterity in winter. Controls include warm, layered clothing, regular breaks in heated vehicles or shelters, and monitoring weather forecasts.
Wet and slippery conditions — rain, frost, and ice increase the risk of slips, falls, and equipment accidents. Waterproof clothing, non-slip footwear, and adjustment of work methods (for example, avoiding mowing steep banks in wet conditions) are essential.
Lightning — if you hear thunder, you are within striking distance. Your risk assessment should include a clear rule: stop work and seek shelter in a vehicle or building if thunderstorms are forecast or observed. Do not shelter under trees.

Lone Working

Many landscaping jobs, particularly domestic garden maintenance, are carried out by a single worker on a remote or isolated site. Lone working increases the risk from almost every other hazard because there is nobody to summon help if something goes wrong.

Your risk assessment should identify which tasks are too dangerous to carry out alone — chainsaw work, for example, should never be done by a lone worker — and set out the controls for tasks that can be done solo:

A check-in system (phone call, text, or app-based) at agreed intervals
Ensuring the lone worker carries a charged mobile phone with signal at the site
Clear emergency procedures, including the address of the work site and the nearest A&E department
First aid kit carried in the vehicle
Training in basic first aid

Biological Hazards

Landscapers spend their working lives outdoors in environments where biological hazards are present. These are often overlooked in risk assessments, but they can cause serious illness.

Lyme disease — transmitted by tick bites, particularly in areas with long grass, bracken, and woodland. Symptoms include a characteristic circular rash, fever, and fatigue. Without treatment, it can cause long-term joint, heart, and neurological problems. Controls include wearing long trousers tucked into socks, using insect repellent containing DEET, checking for ticks after work, and training workers to recognise symptoms and seek early medical treatment.
Weil’s disease (leptospirosis) — caused by bacteria found in water or soil contaminated with urine from infected rats and cattle. Landscapers are at risk when working near waterways, ditches, and areas with rodent activity. Controls include covering cuts and abrasions with waterproof plasters, wearing gloves when handling soil or debris near water, washing hands before eating or drinking, and awareness training.
Tetanus — caused by bacteria entering the body through cuts and puncture wounds, which are common in landscaping. All employees should have up-to-date tetanus vaccination. Check that boosters are current (every 10 years is the recommended schedule for at-risk workers).
Dermatitis — contact with certain plants (giant hogweed, for example, causes severe phototoxic burns), soil, cement, and chemicals can cause occupational dermatitis. Controls include plant identification training, appropriate gloves, barrier creams, and prompt washing of affected skin.

What Inspectors Look For

If an HSE inspector visits your site — or if the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) visits in Ireland — they will look at your risk assessment with a critical and experienced eye. Here is what they expect to find:

Specificity — the assessment must be specific to your business and the work you do. A generic template with “landscaping” written at the top will not pass muster. They want to see the actual equipment you use, the actual chemicals, the actual sites and conditions.
Suitable and sufficient — the assessment does not need to be perfect or cover every conceivable scenario. It needs to be proportionate to the risks. But it must cover all the significant hazards relevant to your work.
Evidence of implementation — they will look at whether the controls described in the assessment are actually in place on site. If your assessment says operators must wear hearing protection when using chainsaws, and they visit a site where your operator is using a chainsaw without ear defenders, you have a problem.
Communication — have your employees been told about the risks and the controls? Can they describe the key hazards of their work and the precautions they should take? Inspectors often speak to workers directly.
Review dates — when was the assessment last reviewed? Is it up to date with current equipment, chemicals, and working practices?
Training records — can you demonstrate that operators are trained and competent, especially for high-risk tasks like chainsaw work, MEWP operation, and pesticide application?
COSHH assessments — these will be checked separately. If you use herbicides, pesticides, or other hazardous substances, you must have individual COSHH assessments for each product.
Accident and incident records — they will want to see your accident book and check whether incidents have been investigated and the risk assessment updated where necessary.

Common Mistakes

Having reviewed hundreds of landscaping risk assessments, these are the mistakes we see most often:

Copying a generic template without adapting it — a risk assessment that mentions “office workstations” and “display screen equipment” but says nothing about chainsaws or COSHH is worse than useless. It shows you have not actually thought about your risks.
Listing hazards without controls — identifying that “chainsaw kickback” is a hazard is only the first step. The assessment must also say what you are doing about it: training, PPE, maintenance, safe working procedures.
Ignoring health risks — many landscaping assessments focus exclusively on safety (injuries) and completely overlook health risks such as noise-induced hearing loss, HAV syndrome, dermatitis, Lyme disease, and respiratory problems from dust and chemical exposure.
Not including vibration and noise — these are two of the most significant long-term health risks in landscaping, yet they are absent from a surprising number of assessments.
Treating it as a one-off exercise — the assessment was written three years ago, the business now uses different equipment, two new staff have joined, and nobody has looked at the document since. This is the single most common failing.
No evidence of communication — the risk assessment exists, but the people doing the work have never seen it and cannot describe the controls.
Failing to carry out COSHH assessments — the main risk assessment mentions “chemicals” in passing, but there are no individual COSHH assessments for each product. This is a separate legal requirement and a common prosecution trigger.
No lone working arrangements — a sole trader or a worker sent to a domestic site alone with no check-in system and no emergency plan.

For a broader checklist of compliance essentials, see our health and safety compliance checklist.

How Often to Review Your Risk Assessment

There is no fixed legal frequency for reviewing a risk assessment, but the expectation is that it is kept up to date. In practice, you should review your landscaping risk assessment:

At least once a year as a minimum, even if nothing obvious has changed.
Whenever you introduce new equipment — a new chainsaw model, a new chipper, a different type of mower.
Whenever you start using a new chemical product — which also triggers the need for a new or updated COSHH assessment.
After any accident, incident, or near miss — to check whether the existing controls were adequate and whether additional measures are needed.
When new staff join or roles change — new employees need to be made aware of the risk assessment, and their training needs may differ from existing staff.
If legislation changes — for example, if the permitted use of a particular herbicide is restricted or a new set of regulations comes into force.
When the type of work changes — if you start offering tree surgery, hard landscaping, or grounds maintenance for commercial clients, your risk profile changes significantly.

Record the date of each review on the document itself, even if no changes were made. This creates an audit trail that demonstrates ongoing management.

Template vs Custom — What Should You Use?

This is one of the most common questions we hear. Should you use a template or write your risk assessment from scratch?

The honest answer is: a good template is a starting point, not a finished product.

A well-designed landscaping-specific template gives you the structure, prompts you to consider the right hazard categories, and provides example controls that are relevant to the trade. It saves you from staring at a blank page and wondering where to begin.

But you must adapt it to your business. A template cannot know which specific equipment you use, which chemicals are in your store, which sites you work on, or how many people you employ. You need to go through every section and make it yours — adding, removing, and adjusting until it accurately reflects your operations.

A custom assessment written entirely from scratch is ideal in theory, but in practice most small landscaping businesses do not have the time or expertise to start from a blank page. A trade-specific template adapted to your business is the most practical approach for the majority of sole traders and small teams.

Looking for a kit that gives you everything in one place — risk assessment templates, COSHH assessments, policies, method statements, and checklists, all tailored for landscaping? Visit our kits page to compare what is available and find the right fit for your business.

Summary

A landscaping risk assessment is not a box-ticking exercise. It is the document that demonstrates you have thought carefully about the hazards your workers face every day and put sensible, practical controls in place to protect them.

To write one that is genuinely useful and legally compliant, you need to:

Follow the HSE’s 5-step process — identify hazards, decide who is at risk, evaluate and control, record, and review.
Cover all the relevant hazard categories — powered equipment, manual handling, work at height, chemicals (with separate COSHH assessments), noise, hand-arm vibration, vehicles, weather, lone working, and biological hazards.
Be specific — name the equipment, the chemicals, the sites, the tasks. Generic statements add no value.
Include numbers where they matter — noise levels in dB(A), vibration magnitudes in m/s², trigger times, weight limits, exposure thresholds.
Make sure it is communicated — every person doing the work should know what the risks are and what the controls require of them.
Keep it alive — review at least annually, and update whenever something changes.

Getting this right protects your workers, protects your business, and gives you confidence that if an inspector walks onto your site tomorrow, you can hand them a document that stands up to scrutiny. It is one of the most valuable things you can do as a landscaping business owner.