Where can I get a legionella risk assessment template in Word?

You can download a free legionella risk assessment template in Word (.docx) from our template page. Word matters because you fill it in, save it, and keep editing it as your system changes, so it becomes your live record rather than a form you complete once and file away.

Why people want the template in Word

Most searches for a Word template are really searches for something you can change. A .docx file opens in Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice and most other editors, and every field in it is yours to overwrite. You type in your building, your pipework, your outlet temperatures and your controls, and the document becomes specific to your premises. That is the whole point of a risk assessment: it describes one water system, not water systems in general. It is worth knowing there is no official HSE Word template to download; the HSE publishes guidance, not a form, so any template you find is one interpretation of that guidance.

The contrast is with a locked PDF. A PDF is fine as a reference to read, but you cannot easily rewrite it, and a form you cannot rewrite tends to get filled in once and then forgotten. A risk assessment is not a one-off certificate. It has to be reviewed and updated when the system changes, when the assessment is no longer thought valid, or when there is reason to believe it is out of date. A Word file lets you make those edits in place and keep the same living document, which is exactly what the review duty expects.

What a good Word template contains

A template is only as good as the sections it prompts you to fill. A sound legionella risk assessment template gives you a place for each of the following.

• Premises and responsible person details. Who owns the duty, who is the appointed responsible person, the site address, and the date of the assessment.
• A water system description. What the system is: mains supply, cold water storage tanks, calorifiers or water heaters, the hot and cold distribution, and any showers, spray taps or other outlets that create an aerosol. This section should have room for a schematic, a simple line drawing of the system, because a diagram catches things a paragraph misses.
• Risk identification. Where legionella could grow or spread: dead legs, infrequently used outlets, stored water sitting in the growth range of roughly 20°C to 45°C, and anything producing an aerosol.
• People at risk. Who uses the building and whether any of them are more vulnerable, for example the elderly, the very young, or people who are already unwell.
• A written scheme of control. The measures you rely on and the checks that prove they are working: storing hot water at 60°C, keeping cold below 20°C, flushing little-used outlets, and the frequency of each task.
• A monitoring log. Where the readings and checks are recorded over time, so the controls can be evidenced rather than just claimed.
• A review log. Dated entries showing when the assessment was reviewed and what changed, so it is visibly a live document.

If a template is missing the schematic space, the scheme of control or the review log, it is closer to a tidy cover sheet than a working assessment. Our free template carries all of these sections, and pairs with a separate log book for the ongoing monitoring record.

Word or PDF: which do you actually need

The honest answer is that you may want both, for different jobs. Keep the Word file as your working master: it is the copy you edit as you walk the system and the one you update at each review. When the assessment is complete and signed off, you can export a PDF as a fixed, dated snapshot to hand to a client, a landlord or an inspector. The PDF is the photograph; the Word file is the thing that keeps living. What you should not do is treat a read-only PDF as your only copy, because the moment the system changes you have no easy way to bring the record up to date.

How to complete it honestly

A blank template invites a dangerous shortcut: filling it in from memory at a desk. A risk assessment completed that way records what you assumed, not what is true. The value comes from completing it during and after a real walk of the system.

Trace the pipework so the schematic reflects what is actually installed, not the original drawings. Measure temperatures at the outlets rather than assuming them, because a temperature reading is the quickest test of whether a control is holding. Note the outlets nobody uses, the capped stubs left behind by old appliances, and the tanks that are warmer than they should be. Then write the controls against what you found. A template filled from evidence is a record; a template filled from optimism is a liability, because it can make an uncontrolled system look controlled on paper.

What a template cannot do

A template is a scaffold. It prompts the right questions and keeps the record in a sensible order, and for a simple, low-risk premises, a small office, a shop or a modest let, that scaffold plus an honest walk of the system may be enough to produce a suitable assessment. What it cannot do is supply judgement. It will not tell you whether a warm dead leg feeding a rarely used shower is a serious risk, or how often a particular outlet needs flushing. That is the assessor's competence, not the document's.

For anything larger or higher risk, a healthcare setting, a care home, a building with a complex system or with vulnerable users, a competent assessor should carry out or review the assessment. A template does not change who is qualified to sign it off. If you are unsure whether your premises even needs an assessment, or what a proper one should cost, start with do I need a risk assessment and what it should cost before you reach for a form.

Where the template fits in the guidance

The template is a recording tool for a legal duty, not the duty itself. ACOP L8 sets the requirement to assess the risk, prepare a written scheme to control it, and keep records. HSG274 Part 2 describes how to do that for hot and cold water systems, including the controls the template asks you to record. The written scheme of control is one of the sections your template should contain, and the monitoring belongs in a log book alongside it. Fill the Word file from a real assessment of your system, keep editing it as things change, and it does the job it is meant to do: hold the record. It does not, on its own, make a system safe or a premises compliant.