When is a risk not a risk?

Project management practices usually require the maintenance of a risk register. Prince 2 suggests that risk analysis is essential for risk management and comprises: risk identification, risk estimation, and risk evaluation. However many risk registers we see are a random list of potential events that could happen to a project with no relation to the business goals of the project. Rarely do we see risks analysed for their impact on business benefit.

So we would argue that a risk is not a "real" risk unless linked in some way to the delay or loss in achieving business benefits. After all, why would you want place your main focus on risks that don't impact on the achievement of business benefit?