Risk register, Terminal 1 refurbishment, September 2026, version 4
Risk register template that works as a monthly meeting document
A risk register is a spreadsheet until someone has to read it out at a meeting, and then it needs a scale, a matrix, owners and a summary of what changed. This one defines its five point scales on page one, rates twelve risks in a table, charts the top five and lists the three that moved since last month.
The document, page by page
Every page as it renders and as it prints, with nothing summarised. Read the wording before you reuse it.
Section by section
What each section is for, so you can keep the ones you need and drop the rest.
- Review stamp
- Reviewed 12 September 2026, stamped under the version 4 header.
- Likelihood scale
- Scores 1 to 5, each with a plain sentence meaning.
- Consequence scale
- Scores 1 to 5 with dollar and time thresholds.
- The 5 by 5 matrix
- Ratings coloured by band, low 1 to 4 up to extreme 16 to 25.
- The register
- Twelve risks with cause, rating, owner, response and status.
- Top risks this month
- A bar chart of the five highest current ratings by ID.
- Movement since last review
- Three rows of was, now and why, including R-03 falling 16 to 8.
- Closed this month
- Two risks retired, each with the reason.
- Actions due
- Three actions with owners and dates before the 10 October review.
- Review sign off
- Project manager and sponsor sign, next review dated.
Likelihood, consequence and the matrix: making two people rate the same way
Every rating argument traces back to undefined scales. Fix it by writing a plain sentence for each likelihood score, this register uses "could happen in any given month of the works" for a 3, and hard thresholds for each consequence score, dollars and weeks, not adjectives. The matrix does the rest: likelihood down the side, consequence across the top, the product in each cell, coloured by band. The bands are policy, not decoration. Low means accept and watch; medium means an owner and a response; high is reported monthly; extreme, 16 and up, does not survive a review untreated. Write the bands next to the matrix so the rule travels with the number.
How to adapt this document
For an operational register covering a whole business rather than a project, swap the project sections for category groupings, financial, people, systems, compliance, and review quarterly instead of monthly; the scales and matrix stay. For a WHS register, keep the same 5 by 5 but write the consequence scale in injury terms rather than dollars, and link each row to the safe work method statement for the activity that creates it. For a small project, a 3 by 3 matrix with three bands is honest and quicker to rate; keep the movement section even then, because what changed since last time is the part every audience actually reads.
What makes this document work
The scales carry dollar and time thresholds
Consequence 4 means $150,000 to $500,000 or one to two months, in a table on page one. Without thresholds, one manager's 4 is another's 2 and the matrix is theatre; with them, two people rating the same risk land on the same square, which is the whole point of having a scale.
R-03 shows a rating falling from 16 to 8
The asbestos risk entered the register at extreme, 16, and sits at 8 after a survey, a licensed removal contract and a $180,000 allowance. The movement table records the fall and why. A register that can show a number dropping because of work done is the register that proves the process is worth the meeting.
The movement table means the meeting reads three rows
Twelve risks are too many to talk through monthly. Section four lists only what changed, three risks with was, now and a one line why, and section five lists the two that closed. The meeting covers those five rows plus the top five chart; the other pages exist for whoever wants the detail.
Questions people ask
What is a risk register?
A living list of the risks to a project or operation, each with a rating on a defined scale, an owner and a response, reviewed on a cycle. This example is version 4 of a monthly register: twelve open risks, three ratings moved, two closed, the next review dated in the footer.
How do you rate a risk?
Likelihood times consequence, each scored one to five on scales the document itself defines. A possible risk with major consequence scores 3 by 4, 12, high band. The rating is only as good as the scale definitions, which is why this register spends its first page on them.
How many risks should a register have?
As many as genuinely have an owner and a response, twelve here. A register padded to fifty rows to look thorough is unreadable at a meeting and unmaintained by month three. If a risk is not worth assigning to a named person, it is not worth a row.
Who owns a risk?
The person who can actually act on the response, not the most senior person in the room. Here the asbestos risk belongs to the site manager running the removal contract, the insolvency risk to the commercial manager running the financial checks. The sponsor owns exactly one: contingency running out.
What is the difference between a risk register and a risk assessment?
The assessment is the analysis of one activity at one time; the register is the list of all live risks over time, with versions and reviews. For workplace health and safety, the activity level document is the safe work method statement, and the WHS risks land in the register with the same scales.
How often should a risk register be reviewed?
Monthly for a live project, quarterly for operations. This one is stamped with its review date, carries version 4 in the running header, and lists the actions due before version 5 on 10 October, so the cycle is visible in the document itself.
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