Guide
What is a control measure?
Every risk assessment and RAMS comes down to the same question for each hazard: what are you going to do about it? The answers are control measures. This guide explains what counts as one, the different types with examples, and how to write controls that a crew can follow and an approver can check.
What is a control measure?
A control measure is any action, equipment or arrangement that removes a hazard or reduces the risk of harm from it. Examples are doing the job from the ground instead of at height, using a less harmful product, fitting guardrails or extraction, issuing a permit or training the crew, and wearing protective equipment. HSE's approach is to get rid of the hazard altogether where you can and, where you cannot, control the risk so harm is unlikely.
Last updated . Facts checked by the SiteSurvey team on 24 October 2026 against HSE: Managing risks and risk assessment at work, Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 3, Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, Schedule 1 and HSE: COSHH good practice, the hierarchy of control options.
Hazard, risk and control
A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm: a trench, a live cable, a fragile rooflight, a propane cylinder, a heavy load. The risk is the likelihood that someone is actually harmed by it, combined with how serious the harm would be. A control measure is what stands between the two. It either takes the hazard away or makes harm less likely or less severe.
The law does not ask you to remove every risk. Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 asks for a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks, and HSE's guidance is to do everything reasonably practicable: balance the level of risk against the money, time and trouble of the measures that would control it. The bigger the risk, the more you are expected to do. Employers with five or more employees must record the significant findings, which in practice means the hazards and the controls.
Types of control measure, with examples
Control measures fall into five types, ranked by how reliably they protect people. The examples are for electrical work, from our library of 25 hazards and 135 controls.
The five types
| Type | What it does | Example for electrical work |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Eliminate | Take the hazard away altogether, usually by doing the job a different way or from a different place. | Supply isolated, locked off and proved dead before work starts |
| 2. Substitute | Swap the hazard for something less harmful: a quieter tool, a cold-applied method, a smaller pack. | Battery tools, or 110 V centre tapped to earth on construction sites |
| 3. Engineering control | Keep people away from the hazard with a physical measure: a guardrail, a barrier, extraction, isolation. | 230 V equipment on an RCD, with leads and plugs checked before use |
| 4. Administrative control | Change the way the work is done: a permit, a check, training, supervision, timing. | Live work only where working dead is unreasonable, with the justification recorded |
| 5. Personal protective equipment | Protect the person as the last line: a harness, hard hat, gloves or respirator. Never the only control. | Insulating gloves and eye protection for live testing |
Sources: Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, Schedule 1 and HSE: COSHH good practice, the hierarchy of control options.
The order matters. Schedule 1 of the 1999 Regulations puts avoiding risks first and gives collective protective measures priority over individual ones, and HSE's guidance on hazardous substances calls personal protective equipment the final control option. The hierarchy of controls explained.
Writing controls a crew can follow
A control measure on paper is only as good as the crew's understanding of it on site. Vague controls such as take care, use appropriate PPE or follow safe working practices cannot be briefed, followed or checked. Good controls name the thing, the place, the person and the check: double guardrails and toeboards on the full perimeter scaffold, handed over with a tag before anyone goes up, inspected every seven days by the supervisor.
That is why the SiteSurvey RAMS template separates the two. For each hazard you tick the standard controls that apply from a list written from HSE guidance, then write in a second box how they apply on this job. The list makes sure nothing obvious is missed. The box makes it specific. If the only thing ticked is protective equipment, the form says so, and a hazard with no controls at all is counted as a point to resolve before the work starts.
From a completed RAMS: Ashcombe Academy sports hall: felt roof renewal
Controls ticked for work at height
- Tower, MEWP or scaffold with guardrails and toeboards rather than ladders
- Access equipment checked before use and inspected within the last 7 days
- Rescue plan agreed and the equipment for it on site
- Work at height stopped in high wind, ice or poor light
How they apply on this job
Full perimeter scaffold with double guardrails, toeboards and a stair tower, handed over with a tag before anyone goes up. Materials up by the scaffold hoist, nothing stored within 1 m of the edge. Deck openings covered and fixed down as soon as insulation is lifted. Weather checked each morning and work stopped in high wind. Rescue plan on page 6.
Open the completed RAMSTry it
Choose control measures for a hazard
Pick any of the 25 hazards and tick its controls, then score the risk. This is how each hazard is filled in on the RAMS form.
Interactive
Try it: choose the controls for a hazard
Works the same way as the RAMS form. Nothing you tick is saved or sent anywhere.
Your controls, by level
- Eliminateno control at this level for this hazard
- Substitutenot ticked
- Engineeringnot ticked
- Adminnot ticked
- PPEnot ticked
Nothing ticked yet.
3. Score the risk with these controls
Common questions
What is the difference between a hazard, a risk and a control measure?
A hazard is something that could cause harm, such as a trench, a live cable or a fragile roof. The risk is the chance that someone is harmed by it and how badly. A control measure is what you do about it: removing the hazard, guarding it, changing how the work is done or protecting the person. You assess the risk with the controls in place, and add further controls until it is as low as is reasonably practicable.
How many control measures does a hazard need?
As many as it takes to bring the risk down to an acceptable level, and no fixed number. A low hazard on a simple job may need one or two. A high hazard such as work near an unprotected edge usually needs several at different levels: a physical safeguard, a check and a rescue plan. What matters is that the controls you rely on are the strongest reasonably practicable, not that the list is long.
Do control measures have to be written down?
If you employ five or more people you must record the significant findings of your risk assessment, which in practice means the hazards and the controls. Even below that, clients and principal contractors usually ask for them in writing as a risk assessment or RAMS, and the crew can only follow controls they have been told about.
What makes a good control measure?
It is specific to the job, it says who does what and when, and someone could check it was done. A controls box that says fall protection to be used is a hope. One that says double guardrails and toeboards on the full perimeter scaffold, tagged before first use and inspected every seven days by the supervisor is a control the crew can follow and an approver can audit.
Keep going
Controls that are specific, every time.
Tick the standard controls for each hazard, then say how they work on your job. The form flags anything missing.