A RAMS is the document a client or principal contractor asks for before a contractor starts work on their site. It puts two things together: a risk assessment, which lists the hazards of the job with the controls and a risk rating for each, and a method statement, which sets out in order how the job will be done with those controls in place. This guide walks through the eight sections in the order a reader expects them; the RAMS template follows the same eight steps.
What the law requires, and what it does not
The legal duty is the risk assessment. Under regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, every employer must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to employees and to anyone else affected by the work, and an employer with five or more employees must record the significant findings.
A method statement is not required by law for most work. HSE describes it as a way of setting out, in a logical sequence, how a job will be done safely, and clients ask for one because it shows the risk assessment has been turned into a plan. The exception is demolition or dismantling: under regulation 20 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 the arrangements must be recorded in writing before the work begins.
Two more CDM 2015 points catch installers out. Regulation 2 defines construction work to include installing, maintaining or removing electrical, telecommunications, computer and similar services fixed to a structure, so an AV, data or electrical installation on a client's premises is construction work. Regulation 15 says a contractor must not appoint anyone without the skills, knowledge, training and experience for the work, which is why a RAMS lists the crew and their cards.
The eight steps
1. Describe the job
Name the site, the client and the principal contractor, the dates and the type of work. Say what the job includes, what it does not, and where on the site it happens.
2. List the people and their competence
Name the supervisor and the crew, record the cards and training the work needs with their expiry dates, and note anyone working under supervision. This is the evidence for regulation 15.
3. Assess the risks
Take each hazard in turn: what it is, where it is, who might be harmed and how. Write the controls for this site, not a paragraph copied from the last job, then rate the risk before and after any further action. Kept as a separate document, the risk assessment template follows HSE's five steps on its own.
4. Write the sequence of work
Set out the steps in the order they happen, with the controls at each step and the hold points where someone checks before the crew moves on. A step at height should state the working height and the access equipment. On its own this section is a method statement, and the method statement template covers it if that is all the client wants.
5. Record plant, materials and PPE
List the plant with its inspection dates, the hazardous substances with their COSHH assessment references, and the PPE for each hazard. PPE is the last control in the order of preference, so it sits beside the barriers, isolations and permits, not in place of them.
6. Permits, emergency and environment
Say which permits the job needs, such as hot works, electrical isolation or permit to dig. Record first aid, the rescue plan for work at height or confined spaces, the assembly point and how an emergency is raised, then the arrangements for waste, dust, noise and the public.
7. Brief the crew
Everyone on the job reads or hears the RAMS before work starts and signs to say so, with the date. A RAMS the crew have not seen has not done its job.
8. Approve and review
Someone other than the author checks the RAMS and signs it off before the start date. Set the triggers for review, such as a change of method, crew, equipment or site conditions, and keep the earlier revision when the sequence changes.
The mistakes that get a RAMS sent back
- Generic controls that describe the hazard rather than the site, the access and the crew.
- A hot works step with no permit, or work at height with no rescue plan.
- A hazard still rated high after its further action, with no explanation.
- An approval dated after the start of the work, or no approver at all.
The RAMS template counts these points on its approval page, which is the quickest way to find them before the principal contractor does.