Site paperwork, explained properly
59 plain-English guides to the RAMS, method statements, permits, risk assessments and site paperwork contractors get asked for.
- Plain English
- Grounded in HSE guidance
- Reviewed and dated
- Linked to templates & tools
Guide · 6 min read
5 Steps to a Risk Assessment: A Practical UK Guide with Worked Example
The method statement describes the how; the risk assessment proves you’ve thought about the what-ifs.
Grounded in
Read the guidance, then build the RAMS
Every guide links back to practical templates, free tools and the RAMS builder so the advice can become a site-specific document.
RAMS builder
Choose the work, add site details, answer risk triggers, review gaps and export a PDF draft.
Open the builder →177 templatesTemplate library
Find task-specific RAMS starting points by trade, task, hazard or permit trigger.
Find a template →49 toolsFree tools
Use checkers, permits, calculators and document builders alongside the RAMS workflow.
Use free tools →RAMS & method statements
What a RAMS is, how to write and structure one, and what reviewers expect to see.
A signature at the bottom of a RAMS document means nothing unless the person who placed it there was genuinely competent to...
Two documents. One framework. Different owners.
You have been asked to supply RAMS before starting work.
Most UK construction sites use both documents.
Most contractors have heard "review your RAMS annually." Few can say where that figure comes from — because it does not come...
A RAMS document is one of the most commonly requested items on a UK construction project — and one of the most commonly rejected.
A generic RAMS gets your work done on paper.
Most guides hand you a list of fields and call it a method statement.
Every competitor offering a "free method statement template for construction work" hands you a blank Word document with no...
A method statement is the document that describes, step by step, how a specific construction or high-risk task will be carried...
RAMS stands for Risk Assessments and Method Statements — two companion documents that together define the hazards in a...
RAMS — Risk Assessment and Method Statement — sit at the centre of construction health and safety management in the UK.
RAMS is an acronym for Risk Assessment Method Statement.
If you have been asked for "RAMS" but only ever produced a risk assessment, this page is the starting point.
If you have been asked to produce a RAMS pack before starting work, you are dealing with one legal duty (the risk assessment)...
Most contractors can name the difference between a risk assessment and a method statement.
Safety RAMS sit at the intersection of two distinct legal frameworks.
RamsDocs produces construction health and safety documentation tools used by contractors across the UK.
A plain-English reference for UK site managers, principal contractors, and small construction businesses who need to produce,...
RAMS — Risk Assessments and Method Statements — is an industry convention, not a term that appears in the Construction (Design...
The full picture — including re-approval after scope change and who holds the signed copy — is in the RACI table below.
Your RAMS came back.
Risk assessment
Scoring, matrices, hazards and how to write a risk assessment that stands up to review.
Risk management is a step-by-step process for controlling health and safety risks caused by hazards in the workplace.
A 5×5 risk assessment matrix is a structured tool for turning a professional judgement about hazard severity and likelihood...
A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm — a source condition.
A dynamic risk assessment (DRA) is an unplanned, real-time evaluation carried out when unforeseen conditions arise that your...
UK hazard sign symbols fall into two legally distinct systems: GHS/CLP chemical pictograms that must appear on hazardous...
Workplace hazards kill and injure people every year.
A construction risk assessment is a legal document.
Near miss reporting is the systematic practice of recording and investigating unplanned events that caused no harm but had...
Most guidance either hands you a blank form or describes the process in the abstract.
A working-at-height risk assessment is a legal requirement under regulation 6(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, which...
A template downloaded from the internet is only as useful as the legal framework it reflects.
A risk assessment is the structured process by which an employer identifies workplace hazards, evaluates the likelihood and...
"Training risk assessment" carries two legally distinct meanings: the skill of conducting a risk assessment (which can be...
COSHH & substances
Hazardous substances: COSHH assessments, safety data sheets and how they relate to RAMS.
Many UK employers treat COSHH assessments and general risk assessments as either the same document or entirely separate exercises.
Construction sites generate a wider and more concentrated range of hazardous substances than almost any other workplace.
Site managers and subcontractors frequently ask whether a RAMS replaces a COSHH assessment, or whether both are genuinely...
If you have encountered the acronym COSHH in a contract, an HSE inspection notice, or a supplier safety data sheet and you are...
A safety data sheet (SDS) is the essential starting point for a COSHH assessment — but it is not the assessment itself.
Regulations explained
CDM 2015, PUWER, RIDDOR, permits and the other regulations behind the paperwork.
Last updated June 2025.
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 — SI 2015/51 — are the primary health and safety framework for...
Every UK construction project — from a bathroom refit to a multi-storey commercial build — requires a construction phase plan...
The Health and Safety at Work etc.
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/2306) — PUWER — are a legal requirement in Great Britain...
If you have encountered the term RIDDOR in a safety document, after a workplace incident, or while drafting a health and safety...
A permit to dig is a formal written authorisation that must be issued, checked, and signed before any excavation work begins on...
No single UK statute uses the phrase "hot work permit." What the law does create — across several instruments — are duties to...
Most explanations of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 stop at prose summaries.
Site safety basics
Policies, training, responsibilities and the everyday paperwork of running safe site work.
Every UK construction site runs on a set of rules.
Under the Health and Safety at Work etc.
A UK health and safety consultant helps employers satisfy specific legal duties — producing written policies, risk assessments,...
Most businesses shopping for health and safety online training are looking for the same things: a broad course library, a...
A health and safety policy is the foundation document of your compliance system.
Last updated June 2025.
Health and safety software is a digital platform that replaces paper-based systems for managing your statutory H&S obligations...
Understanding your obligations before a lone worker sets foot on site — or knocks on a stranger's door.
Understanding your legal duties on manual handling is not optional — it is a statutory requirement under the Manual Handling...
A safe system of work (SSOW) is a formally defined procedure that enables a hazardous task to be carried out safely.