For individuals and organisations up and down the UK that have responsibility for the management and maintenance of buildings – such as landlords, property managers, and large institutions like schools, universities, and healthcare providers – it is critically important to manage and control the risks associated with legionella bacteria.
This means not only carrying out a legionella risk assessment, but also implementing the findings, tracking follow-up actions, and ensuring that relevant information is shared across teams and stakeholders.
Exposure to legionella is particularly strongly associated with the risk of contracting Legionnaires’ disease – a potentially fatal form of pneumonia – through the inhalation of small water droplets containing the bacteria.
Unsurprisingly, then, organisations like those mentioned above are subject to various legal obligations in the UK, aimed at minimising the risks of people falling ill as a result of contact with legionella.
Those requirements and guidelines are set out in provisions such as:
- The Health and Safety at Work Act, which imposes a general duty on employers to protect the health and safety of their employees and other people impacted by their work activities.
- The Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) for controlling legionella bacteria in water systems, issued by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). A free PDF copy of the ACOP and associated guidance, under the L8 series code, can be downloaded from the HSE website.
- Further technical guidance documents under the series code HSG274 support ACOP L8, and are also available in digital form for free from the HSE.
However, it can understandably be an overwhelming process to attempt to adhere to – and then maintain compliance with – requirements like these through traditional and manual methods alone.
In this article, we will therefore take a closer look at the notion of using software as a modern, digital approach to legionella risk assessment and ongoing compliance.
What is the purpose of a legionella risk assessment?
It is important to emphasise that the purpose of a legionella risk assessment is not to identify whether legionella bacteria is present in a given property’s water systems.
Instead, the focus is very much on identifying the conditions that could allow legionella to grow and spread. It is aimed at pinpointing potential legionella hazards within a building’s water systems, alongside the evaluation of existing control measures, to help ensure their adequacy and compliance with the latest regulatory standards.
As a dutyholder under ACOP L8 – a status held by individuals and organisations responsible for the management and prevention of legionella risks in water systems – you have a duty of care to others. This includes vulnerable groups of people such as patients, students, and tenants – although it should be noted that anyone is potentially susceptible to Legionnaires’ disease.
It’s crucial to understand that a risk assessment is just one component of effective legionella risk management. For genuine compliance, the findings must be acted upon, tracked, and shared with relevant stakeholders. This end-to-end process is where software solutions like Vision Pro play a vital role.
Who should carry out the assessment – can it be done in-house?
UK legislation sets out that a given individual simply needs to be “competent” in order to perform a legionella risk assessment. “Competent”, in this case, refers to being knowledgeable about the health and safety regulations and the legionella risk assessment procedure.
ACOP L8 sets out that the dutyholder should put in place a “responsible person” to assume day-to-day responsibility for controlling legionella bacteria – and the associated risk of Legionnaires’ disease – in the workplace.
This “responsible person” should be a senior manager or director, or someone with similar status, in addition to possessing sufficient authority, competence, and knowledge of the installations under their control.
So, to answer the question above – the legionella risk assessment can theoretically be done in-house. However, if the “responsible person” doesn’t feel competent to undertake the assessment themselves, they also have the option of appointing a competent person – whether from within their own organisation or an external consultancy.
The right choice of legionella risk assessment software can help bridge the gap between in-house teams and external consultants. It achieves this by providing individuals in both categories with greatly useful structure, documentation, and insight.
Step by step: how should you conduct a legionella risk assessment?
Here, then, are the fundamental steps by which you can undertake a thorough legionella risk assessment, with the help of our own Vision Pro Software as your chosen legionella risk management platform.
1. How do you identify and understand your water systems?
Firstly, you will need to begin documenting all the water systems at your property that could potentially harbour legionella.
The creation of a schematic diagram mapping all the premises’ water systems – encompassing hot and cold water systems, as well as such elements as cooling towers, storage tanks, and pipework – will enable you to start developing a thorough understanding of the property’s water infrastructure.
Vision Pro Software offers various capabilities that are useful at this stage, including in relation to schematics, NFC/RFID asset tagging, and data capture during inspections.
2. Where might legionella risks arise?
Next, it will be time to begin identifying the areas of your property’s water systems where legionella risks could conceivably arise.
Areas of potential stagnation are classic examples – if certain outlets such as showers are infrequently used, and water is allowed to sit, this could promote bacterial growth. Aerosol generation, too can bring legionella risks, with showers, cooling towers, or hot tubs creating water droplets that could spread the bacteria if inhaled.
Sophisticated cloud-based legionella risk management software – such as Vision Pro Software – can enable you to log condition-based risks and have areas of non-compliance flagged to you automatically.
3. Who is at risk and how should you evaluate exposure?
As mentioned, anyone of any age or circumstance can contract Legionnaires’ disease due to contact with legionella in a property’s water system. However, certain individuals, such as the elderly, smokers, and people with weakened immune systems, are likely to be especially vulnerable.
Your legionella risk assessment will also need to account for the frequency and duration of potential exposure. This will naturally be dictated by the level of contact that people have with the water systems in your building.
Dashboards incorporated into Vision Pro Software can help assess the scope for legionella exposure across building zones, units, and occupancy types.
4. What should be measured – and how?
Various aspects of the water systems in your property can be checked and measured in your efforts to assess the risks of legionella bacteria. These encompass temperatures, water flow rates, pH, and disinfectant levels.
These are all parameters that Vision Pro Software integrates into inspection forms. This, in turn, makes it easier to validate against legal benchmarks in real time.
5. What control measures should be implemented?
Now, on the basis of the legionella risks you have identified, it will be time to begin developing and implementing control measures to help minimise the risk of the bacteria growing and spreading in your premises’ water systems.
These control measures may take various forms. You might introduce a program of regularly flushing unused pipework, while maintaining hot water temperatures at the recommended levels, and arranging the regular maintenance of your water systems.
You may also have “dead legs” in your water systems removed, this being a reference to sections of pipework that no longer see regular water flow, and that could therefore potentially host legionella growth due to stagnant water.
Dutyholders can use Vision Pro Software to automate control measure reminders and log execution with timestamped evidence.
However, implementation alone is not enough. Dutyholders must ensure that control measures are carried out consistently, verified for effectiveness, and adjusted when necessary. Vision Pro Software supports this with tools for real-time tracking, execution logging, and automated follow-ups – all essential for demonstrating compliance.
6. How should you document the assessment?
If your organisation has five or more employees, you will be obliged to record any significant findings from your legionella risk assessment.
The records that you maintain will need to state the person or people responsible for carrying out the risk assessment. You will also need to record, alongside any significant findings, the written control scheme and information about the state of operation of the system. The results of any monitoring inspection, test, or check undertaken should be included, too.
In addition to recording initial findings, it is essential to document how those findings are addressed, including remedial actions, responsible parties, completion dates, and subsequent verifications. This forms an auditable trail that proves the organisation is actively managing its legionella risk.
The essential documentation processes can be made easier with Vision Pro Software. Our platform generates and stores full digital logbooks, schematics, risk scores, and compliance reports – all downloadable and regulator-ready.
7. How do you develop a water management plan (WMP)?
A WMP is a comprehensive strategy, aimed at ensuring a property’s water systems are safe, efficient, and sustainable. Implementation of the WMP for your premises will entail monitoring the water quality, guarding against contamination, and maintaining regulatory compliance.
The process of creating a WMP can be complicated. It will follow on from the findings of your legionella risk assessment.
Through long-term preventative strategies and action plans, as outlined in your WMP, you can help ensure the water systems at your premises do not pose avoidable risks of people contracting health conditions from exposure to legionella.
The business intelligence tools integrated into Vision Pro Software can help you track trends, evaluate effectiveness, and adjust your plans over time in how you manage your site’s water systems.
How can software like Vision Pro Software simplify compliance and risk management?
There are various ways in which our Vision Pro Software can make your life easier as a dutyholder seeking to minimise legionella risks at your premises:
- Automated scheduling and notifications mean you never need to miss compliance dates, thanks to customisable alerts drawing your attention to them.
- Centralised data and real-time risk visibility are other big advantages of Vision Pro Software, allowing you to view compliance status across multiple buildings from one dashboard.
- Regulatory alignment and audit-ready reporting can also be easily assured, courtesy of built-in templates based on ACOP L8 and HSG274.
- Collaboration and accessibility are straightforward with this platform; contractors, facilities teams, and compliance officers are able to access and update the system from anywhere.
- Advanced analytics and predictive risk monitoring allow for patterns in non-compliance or equipment failure to be identified before they become incidents.
Conclusion: why a proactive, software-driven approach is essential
By undertaking a legionella risk assessment encompassing the aforementioned components – such as, but not limited to, identifying where legionella risks could arise in your property’s systems, pinpointing who could be particularly vulnerable, and devising suitable control measures, you can help keep yourself ahead of risk as a property manager or landlord.
With Vision Pro Software, as a dutyholder under ACOP L8, you can ensure legionella risk assessments are not only completed, but are also embedded in an ongoing culture of safety, implementation, and compliance.
Contact our team today, and we will be pleased to discuss the role that Vision Pro Software could play in supporting your needs.
