LMRA — the last check before anyone picks up a tool

A job risk assessment is written once and describes typical conditions: a known workplace, working equipment, a predictable environment. Reality often differs — another repair is running nearby, a guard is missing, the floor is wet, the crew is different and the job is urgent.

Most incidents during non-routine work happen in that gap. The document was correct and the procedure existed, yet conditions at the moment work started were not the ones assessed months earlier in an office.

LMRA (Last Minute Risk Assessment) closes the gap with a short structured check completed by the crew themselves, right before the task. In VIMS it usually takes two minutes on a phone and leaves a record a corridor conversation never does.

A permit to work is formal authorisation issued before high-risk work, involving several people and usually prepared in advance. LMRA is done by the working crew at the last moment, already on site, and does not replace the permit.

In practice they complement each other: the permit sets the conditions and LMRA verifies those conditions actually hold at the start. In VIMS an LMRA can be linked to a specific permit, so supervision sees both together.

The same applies to the job risk assessment. If LMRA repeatedly reveals a hazard that is absent from the workplace assessment, that is a signal to update the document rather than repeat the same remark on every task.