Form library · Construction and handover
Health and safety file template
For project teams assembling and handing over a health and safety file. Record file responsibility, file contents and gaps and transfer. Try the form below, see every question or download a blank PDF or Word copy.
Ready to use from the form library, and every question is yours to edit. Trial from £1, cancel any time.
Try it on your phone
Try it on this phone
Fill in the health and safety file index on your phone now
See how the health and safety file index looks on your phone
Scan the code with your phone camera. It opens the real form, no sign-up needed.
Open the live example and fill it in, just as your team would on site. No sign-up needed.
See it on this phoneEvery question is editable. Add this form to your account, then change the wording, add or remove questions and options, and make it fit your own jobs.
When is a CDM health and safety file required?
For projects involving more than one contractor, CDM 2015 requires the principal designer to prepare a health and safety file containing information likely to be needed for health and safety during subsequent work. Regulation 12 also addresses review, updating and handover, including where the principal designer appointment ends before the project finishes. These are Great Britain duties.
Last updated . Facts checked by the SiteSurvey team on 6 October 2026 against CDM 2015 regulation 12 on plans and the health and safety file and HSE principal designer duties under CDM 2015.
Try the health and safety file index form live
Answer a few questions and watch it adapt. Your answers are not saved, and any photos you add are deleted within the hour.
This is the real form as your team would use it: questions appear as you answer, scores work themselves out and you can add photos and signatures. No sign-up needed.
Want to see one filled in? See a completed health and safety file index report (PDF), made by SiteSurvey from a fictional site visit.
Fill it in on a phone or tablet
Your team completes the health and safety file index on site in the SiteSurvey app on iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets. The project name and address fill in for them, it works without signal, and it syncs when the device is back online with photos kept against the question they answer.
Customers and subcontractors do not need the app: send them a link and they can fill it in from any browser.
Every question in the health and safety file index template
A CDM health and safety file index with relevant residual risks, document revisions, maintenance information, outstanding items and client handover. 5 sections and 34 questions. Follow-up questions and guidance appear only when an answer calls for them, so the person on site never sees the ones that do not apply.
Make it your own: every question is editable
This is a starting point, not a fixed form. Once it is in your SiteSurvey account you can reword any question, add or remove questions, sections and answer options, and add your own logo, so it fits the way your team works and the jobs you do.
Details you only enter once
Add this form to a project in SiteSurvey and it fills in what the project already knows, so nobody on site retypes it and every form on the job uses the same names. Anything filled in can still be changed.
- Project: the project name
- Site or premises address: the site address, from the space or the project
- Client or organisation: the project's customer
Record details and scope
- ProjectShort answer
Filled in from the project in SiteSurvey.
Fills in from the project name - Site or premises addressShort answerFills in from the site address, from the space or the project
- Client or organisationShort answerFills in from the project's customer
- Record date*Date
- Person completing the record*Short answer
- CheckThis is an index and handover record, not the complete health and safety file. The actual relevant information and documents must be assembled, reviewed and passed to the appropriate person.
- CheckFor projects involving more than one contractor, CDM 2015 requires the principal designer to prepare a health and safety file containing information likely to be needed for health and safety during subsequent work. Regulation 12 also addresses review, updating and handover, including where the principal designer appointment ends before the project finishes. These are Great Britain duties.
File responsibility
- Project and file reference*Short answer
- Principal designer*Short answer
- Principal contractorShort answer
- Client recipient*Short answer
- Information needed for foreseeable subsequent workNotes
File contents
- File itemRepeat for each file item. Each one asks:
- Subject and relevance to subsequent work*Short answer
- Document reference and location*Short answer
- Revision and dateShort answer
- Residual risk, limitation or important precautionNotes
- Review status*Choose one
- Reviewed and included
- Outstanding
- Superseded
- Not applicable
- Document ownerShort answer
- Review notes or reason for omissionNotes
Gaps and transfer
- Outstanding information and agreed resolution*Notes
Identify the missing document, its relevance to future work and the person responsible for obtaining it.
- Transfer arrangements if the principal designer appointment ends earlyNotes
- Handover file revisionShort answer
- Handover dateDate
- Where the file is held and how it can be accessedNotes
- Client receipt acknowledgementSignature
Actions and review
- Are further actions required?*Choose one
- Yes
- No
- Further actionRepeat for each further action. Each one asks:Shown when “Are further actions required?” is “Yes”
- Action and evidence reference*Notes
- Person responsible*Short answer
- Target dateDate
- Action status*Choose one
- Open
- In progress
- Completed
- Completion evidence*NotesShown when “Action status” is “Completed”
- Outstanding limitations and information to pass onNotes
- Record status*Choose one
- Ready for review
- Further work needed
- Work or use stopped
- Reviewed byShort answer
- Review dateDate
- Author signature*Signature
- CheckSigning records the information entered. It does not itself certify legal compliance, remove a limitation or authorise unsafe work.
Scope and responsibility
This is an index and handover record, not the complete health and safety file. The actual relevant information and documents must be assembled, reviewed and passed to the appropriate person.
What a useful entry looks like
Outstanding information and agreed resolution
Identify the missing document, its relevance to future work and the person responsible for obtaining it.
As-built roof-access drawing is outstanding from package R-03. File index item HF-18 remains open pending the designer's final issue.
Fictional example of record wording. Use the actual evidence and approved arrangements for your job; this is not a completed report or an instruction to carry out the work.
See it filled in
A completed health and safety file index report, made by SiteSurvey from a fictional site visit: every answer, the photos, the guidance that applied and the sign-off, ready to send as a PDF.
Health and Safety File Index FAQs
How should I record “Outstanding information and agreed resolution”?
Identify the missing document, its relevance to future work and the person responsible for obtaining it.
Is this an operations and maintenance manual?
No. The file has a health and safety purpose for subsequent work. Relevant maintenance information can be referenced, but an O&M manual is not automatically the complete file.
Can the index replace the source documents?
No. Record document locations and revisions, and ensure the recipient actually receives or can access the information.
What if information is still outstanding?
Identify each missing item, its owner and resolution. A handover signature must not conceal an incomplete file.
What are the limits of this template?
This is an index and handover record, not the complete health and safety file. The actual relevant information and documents must be assembled, reviewed and passed to the appropriate person.
Can I complete this form on site and share the record?
In the SiteSurvey app the form works offline, with signatures recorded against the questions. Share the completed record as a PDF or a link. Dates and action owners are recorded fields; this form does not send reminders or update other systems.
Related
Related templates
Templates that go with the health and safety file index form
A construction phase plan record covering the team, programme, site rules, welfare, significant risks, emergency arrangements and revisions.
A pre-construction information register with existing records, site constraints, significant risks, information gaps, recipients and issue revisions.
A design risk register linking design decisions, foreseeable lifecycle hazards, elimination options, residual risks, drawings and dutyholder communication.
Use this health and safety file index form with your team
Add it from the form library in one click, change any question, and every completed form becomes a branded PDF report.
Start your trial →