How to Carry Out an RI&E in the Netherlands: A Guide

What is an RI&E and why it matters

RI&E stands for Risico-Inventarisatie en -Evaluatie, the Dutch term for a workplace risk inventory and evaluation. Under the Dutch Working Conditions Act (Arbeidsomstandighedenwet), almost every employer with staff is required to identify the health and safety risks in their organization and document how those risks will be managed.

An RI&E is not a one-off form you file away. It is meant to be a living overview of the hazards in your workplace, from physical risks like machinery and chemicals to psychosocial risks like work pressure. It also has to include a Plan van Aanpak (action plan) that sets out what you will do about each risk, who is responsible, and by when.

Who needs to carry out an RI&E

Nearly all Dutch employers are legally required to carry out an RI&E, regardless of company size. There are some simplified routes for very small businesses using branch-recognized checklists, but the underlying obligation to know your risks and manage them still applies.

Companies that fall under the Seveso III Directive because they store or handle large quantities of hazardous substances have an extra layer of obligations on top of the standard RI&E. Their risk management needs to cover major-accident scenarios, not just everyday workplace hazards, and this is typically where generic checklist tools start to fall short. If that applies to your site, it is worth reading our article on why generic safety management software falls short for Seveso III companies.

Step-by-step: how to carry out an RI&E

Carrying out an RI&E properly involves more than filling in a template. A structured approach looks like this:

Map your work activities and locations. List every department, process, and physical location where employees (and contractors) carry out tasks.
Identify hazards for each activity. Think about physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic, and psychosocial risks. Talk to the people actually doing the work, they usually know the real risks better than a policy document does.
Assess the risks. For each hazard, estimate the likelihood and the potential severity of harm. This helps you prioritize which risks need attention first.
Document existing measures. Note what controls, procedures, or equipment are already in place, and whether they are actually being followed on the shop floor.
Draft the Plan van Aanpak. For every risk that is not sufficiently controlled, describe the corrective action, who owns it, and the deadline.
Get it checked, if required. Depending on your company size and sector, your RI&E may need to be assessed by a certified expert or occupational health and safety service.
Communicate the results. Share relevant findings with employees and, where applicable, the works council.
Review and update regularly. An RI&E should be revisited whenever work processes, equipment, or regulations change, not just once every few years.

Common mistakes to avoid

A few patterns show up again and again when RI&Es are reviewed:

Treating it as a compliance exercise instead of an operational tool, so it gets written once and never opened again.
Involving only managers or an external consultant, without input from the people who actually do the work.
Listing risks without ever closing the loop on the corrective actions in the Plan van Aanpak.
Using generic industry templates that do not reflect the site's actual equipment, substances, or layout.
Losing track of versions and updates because the RI&E lives in a static document or spreadsheet.

Turning the RI&E into real action

The RI&E itself is only half the job. The value comes from what happens after: whether corrective actions are actually assigned, tracked, and closed out. This is where many organizations lose momentum, because a PDF or spreadsheet does not remind anyone that an action is overdue.

A few practical habits help:

Assign every action from the Plan van Aanpak to a named owner with a real deadline.
Track status centrally so managers can see open items at a glance, not buried in email threads.
Re-inspect and re-assess after changes to equipment, processes, or incidents, rather than waiting for the next scheduled review.
Keep a record of what was checked, by whom, and when, so you have a clear audit trail if the Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie or, for Seveso-covered sites, the DCMR ever asks for evidence.

How Capptions can support the RI&E process

Capptions will not carry out your RI&E for you, that judgment call still belongs to your organization and, where required, a certified expert. What Capptions does support is everything around it:

Build custom digital forms for your risk inventory and inspections, structured around your own activities and locations rather than a generic template.
Turn findings straight into corrective actions with owners, deadlines, and follow-up reminders, so the Plan van Aanpak stays a living document instead of a static file.
Use workflows to route sign-off, escalate overdue actions, and keep a clear audit trail of what was checked and when.
Let the Clara AI assistant help surface trends across past inspections, so recurring risks do not get lost between review cycles.
For sites with major-hazard obligations, Capptions Seveso Control adds structure specifically for major-accident risk management on top of standard inspection workflows.

If your RI&E currently lives in a spreadsheet or a drawer, it might be worth seeing how digitizing the process and the follow-up actions could make it easier to keep on top of. Capptions is happy to show you how that works in practice, no pressure, just a look at whether it fits your situation.