Security guard risk assessment

A security guard risk assessment for a small static site has to name this site, this shift and whether the officer is alone. It is not a generic slips-and-trips sheet, and it is not the assignment instructions. A RAMS (a risk assessment and method statement) puts the assessment next to the order of the duty so you can brief from it. A competent person still has to check it against the gate, the lighting and the control room you actually use.

Start from the security guarding RAMS, or read the fictional night-guard example. The example is a made-up compound. It is stamped SAMPLE – NOT FOR USE.

What to cover on a static site

• Site survey. Walk the gate, the lighting, the vehicle route and anywhere the officer is expected to go after dark. Write down what is unlit or out of bounds. Do this before the first night, not from a photograph.
• Assignment instructions. These are the duties for this contract. The risk assessment does not replace them. If the instructions and the RAMS disagree, stop and sort that out before the officer is alone.
• Lone working and check-calls. Name the person who receives the call and what they do if it is missed. HSE’s leaflet INDG73, Working alone, treats a check-call as an arrangement. It does not make a dangerous entry safe.
• Violence and aggression. Say how the officer withdraws, when they call the police, and that they are not expected to chase or restrain someone. A duress word on the radio is more use than shouting across a yard.
• Patrols in poor light. Limit the patrol to the lit area. Holes, ice and trailing cables are reported while it is still light enough to see them.
• Vehicles on site. An officer checking passes is not also the banksman. Nobody stands between a wagon and a gate.
• Fatigue on long shifts. The shift pattern is part of the assessment. An officer who is already exhausted does not start a night.
• SIA licence. Check it is in date and is for security guarding, before the assignment. The licence is not a method.
• First aid and escalation. Say where the kit is, whether this officer is the first-aider, and how an ambulance is met. A missed check-call is an emergency for control, not a reason for the officer to search a building alone.

Standards, checked against the published scope

BS 7499 is the code of practice for the provision of static guarding security services. The 2026 edition, seen in the BSI published preview, gives recommendations for guarding on a static site. Its scope says it does not apply to mobile patrols, keyholding and response, door supervisors, CCTV or event stewarding. The 2020 BSI knowledge page said the same about mobile patrols and pointed them to BS 7984-3. Follow the edition you hold. This page is not a claim that a deployment complies with the standard.

BS 10800 is the overarching code of practice for the provision of security services. The 2026 edition is written to be used with the sector standard, including BS 7499 for static guarding. Its scope is strategic management, staffing and operations, and the published contents include site surveys and assignment instructions. It does not replace either of those documents, and RamsBox does not produce them.

A short fictional sequence

Night guard, one officer, construction compound, check-calls to a control room:

1. Book on. Licence checked. Radio and phone tested.
2. Read the assignment instructions. They stay a separate document.
3. Walk the gate and the lights with the day contact. Agree what is out of bounds after dark.
4. Make the check-calls. Control already knows a missed call is an emergency.
5. Patrol only the lit compound. Do not enter a building if there are signs someone is inside unlawfully.
6. Hand over, write the occurrence book, and book off.

That shape is the worked example. It uses made-up names and an Ofcom drama number. It is not a RAMS for your compound.