Is a RAMS a legal requirement in the UK?

The risk assessment inside it is. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require every employer and self-employed person to assess the risks of their work, and to record the assessment where there are five or more employees. The method statement is not named in legislation, but it is how contractors meet their duty under CDM 2015 to plan, manage and monitor their work, and principal contractors will not let work start without one.

What does RAMS stand for?

RAMS stands for Risk Assessment and Method Statement. The two are usually combined in one document, which is why the term is treated as singular.

The person who prepared it and the person who approved it, normally a supervisor, contracts manager or director, sign the front sheet. Each operative signs the briefing record to confirm they have read or been briefed on it before starting work.

Does a sole trader need a RAMS?

Yes, when they work in construction or on someone else's site. Construction is a prescribed undertaking under the self-employed regulations of 2015, so the duties of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 apply to a self-employed tradesperson exactly as they do to an employer, and a principal contractor will ask for the document regardless.

How long does it take to write a RAMS?

Written from scratch in a word processor, a job-specific RAMS takes an experienced supervisor one to three hours. RAMS Pal produces a complete first draft from a job description and a set of site questions in about six minutes, which is then reviewed and edited before it is issued.

What is a RAMS? Risk Assessment and Method Statement explained

Key facts

RAMS = Risk Assessment + Method Statement, almost always issued as a single document.
Every employer and self-employed person must assess the risks of their work under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and record it in writing with five or more employees.
Method statements are not named in any regulation, but they are the standard way UK contractors show a planned, safe system of work and meet their duties under CDM 2015.
A RAMS is job-specific: it names the site, the work, the people, the plant and the dates. A document that could apply to any job is a template, not a RAMS.
It is briefed to the operatives before work starts, and they sign to confirm they have understood it.

The two halves of a RAMS

The risk assessment is the analytical half. It lists each hazard the job involves, who could be harmed and how, the initial risk before any controls, the control measures that will be applied, and the residual risk once they are in place. Most UK contractors score risk on a 5×5 matrix, multiplying likelihood by severity to give a figure from 1 to 25 and a rating of low, medium or high.

The method statement is the practical half. It describes, in the order the work will actually happen, how the job will be done: who arrives, what is checked, what is isolated, what is lifted and by what, what permits must be in force, and how the site is left. Where the risk assessment says a hazard will be controlled by edge protection, the method statement says who installs it, when and where.

The two halves reference each other. A hazard in the risk assessment that never appears as a step, a check or a permit in the method statement is a sign the document was assembled rather than thought through, and it is the first thing an experienced site manager looks for.

What a complete RAMS contains

There is no statutory layout, but principal contractors expect the same sections in the same order, because they check them against a list. A RAMS that is missing one is sent back.

Document control: reference, revision, who prepared it, date of issue and review date
Scope of works and the site address that makes it site-specific
Site, access and coordination arrangements, including who else is working nearby
Permits required: hot works, confined space entry, permit to dig, electrical isolation
Personnel and competence, with the cards and qualifications held (CSCS, ECS, IPAF, PASMA, CISRS, Gas Safe)
Plant, tools and equipment, with their pre-use checks and inspection status
PPE schedule, each item named to the standard it meets (EN 397 helmets, EN ISO 20345 footwear, EN 361 harnesses)
Risk assessment: hazards, who is harmed, controls, initial and residual risk
Method statement: the numbered sequence of works
Emergency arrangements: nominated first aider, site emergency contact, nearest A&E, assembly point
Welfare and environmental controls
Relevant legislation and guidance
Sign-off by the person who prepared and approved it, and an operative briefing record

Who has to produce a RAMS

The contractor carrying out the work produces the RAMS, because they are the people who know how it will be done. Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 every contractor must plan, manage and monitor their own work so it is carried out without risk to health or safety, and must not start on site without the information and induction they need. The RAMS is how that planning is recorded and handed over.

A principal contractor does not write a subcontractor's RAMS. They review it, check it fits the construction phase plan and the site rules, and either accept it or send it back. A client or facilities manager on a non-construction site does the same thing before letting a contractor into an occupied building.

Sole traders are not exempt. Since 2015 self-employed people whose work poses no risk to others are outside the general duties of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, but construction is expressly listed as a prescribed undertaking, so a self-employed electrician, roofer or plumber carries the same duties as an employer.

When a RAMS is asked for

In practice a RAMS is required whenever a contractor works on a site controlled by someone else, and always for work with a recognised high-risk element.

Work at height: roofs, scaffolds, MEWPs, ladders, fragile surfaces
Hot works: welding, cutting, grinding, soldering, torch-applied roofing
Electrical work, especially where isolation or live testing is involved
Lifting operations with cranes, hoists or telehandlers
Excavations and work near buried services
Confined spaces: plant rooms, tanks, ducts, voids, manholes
Work in occupied premises: offices, schools, hospitals, retail, residential
Work near the public or on the highway
Anything a principal contractor's site rules or a permit-to-work system covers

How long a RAMS is valid

A RAMS is valid for the job it describes, for as long as the job, the site, the people and the method stay as described. It is not an annual document. If the scope changes, a different crew turns up, the client moves the work to a different floor or the weather rules out the planned access, the RAMS is revised and re-briefed before work continues.

Most contractors set a formal review date, commonly six months, so a long-running job is re-read even when nothing has obviously changed. The revision number and date on the front sheet tell the site which version is in force.

Why a generic template is not a RAMS

The legal test for a risk assessment is that it is suitable and sufficient for the work in question. A downloaded template that lists every hazard a trade could ever meet, with no site address, no named supervisor and no dates, is neither. Principal contractors reject them on sight, and a generic document offers no defence after an incident, because it shows the risks of that job were never actually considered.

The fastest way to produce a job-specific RAMS is to start from the job, not from a template: describe the work, answer the questions the site would ask, and let the hazards, controls, permits and PPE follow from the answers. That is what RAMS Pal does, and every section it produces can be edited before the document is issued.

Questions

Sources

The legislation and HSE guidance this guide is based on. Legislation links go to the revised text on legislation.gov.uk.

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 3 (risk assessment) · legislation.gov.uk
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 2 (general duties of employers) · legislation.gov.uk
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 3 (duties to persons other than employees) · legislation.gov.uk
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (General Duties of Self-Employed Persons) (Prescribed Undertakings) Regulations 2015 · legislation.gov.uk
CDM 2015, regulation 15 (duties of contractors) · legislation.gov.uk
Managing health and safety in construction: CDM 2015 guidance on regulations (L153) · Health and Safety Executive
Risk assessment: a brief guide to controlling risks in the workplace (INDG163) · Health and Safety Executive

This guide is general information about UK health and safety practice. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace a competent person's assessment of your own work.

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