This International Standard establishes general principles for the procedure known as risk assessment, by which the knowledge and experience of the design, use, incidents, accidents and harm related to machinery is brought together in order to assess the risks during all phases of life of the machinery. This International Standard gives guidance on the information required to allow risk assessment to be carried out. Procedures are described for identifying hazards and estimating and evaluating risk. The purpose of the International Standard is to provide advice for decisions to be made on the safety of machinery and the type of documentation required to verify the risk assessment carried out. This International Standard is not intended to provide a detailed account of methods for analysing hazards and estimating risk, as this is dealt with elsewhere. A summary of some of these methods is given for information only.