RAMS Explained: What a Risk Assessment and Method Statement Actually Is

 Short answer: RAMS stands for Risk Assessment and Method Statement, two connected documents that most UK construction sites will ask you to produce before they let you start work. If you've been asked for one and aren't sure what it actually needs to contain, here's the plain version.


WHAT THE TWO PARTS ACTUALLY ARE


A risk assessment identifies the hazards in a specific work activity: who could be harmed, how likely it is, how severe it could be, and what you'll do to control it. A method statement is the practical companion document. It sets out the actual sequence of works, step by step, so anyone reading it knows exactly how the job will be carried out safely.


Put together, RAMS answers two questions a site manager or principal contractor needs answered before they let anyone start: what could go wrong, and exactly how you're going to stop it going wrong.


WHERE THE LEGAL REQUIREMENT COMES FROM


The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations require risks to be controlled in any workplace, construction sites included, and where five or more people are employed, the significant findings of a risk assessment have to be recorded in writing. Separately, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 don't use the word "RAMS" directly, but they require risks to be identified and managed following the principles of prevention: avoid the risk first, then control what's left. The Health and Safety Executive treats a properly written RAMS as one accepted way of meeting that requirement.


WHO ACTUALLY HAS TO PRODUCE ONE


In practice it's whoever is carrying out the work: contractors, subcontractors, and anyone working on a site under CDM 2015, which covers designers, principal contractors, and everyone below them in the chain. If a main contractor asks a subcontractor for a RAMS before starting, that's them fulfilling their own duty to manage the risks their site creates.


WHAT A GOOD ONE ACTUALLY COVERS


A RAMS that will actually pass review needs to be specific to the job, not a generic template with the site name changed. It should name the activity, the plant and equipment involved, the sequence of work, the hazards specific to that sequence (working at height, lifting, hot works, whatever applies), the control measures for each one, who's responsible for what, and what happens in an emergency.


GETTING ONE WRITTEN


If you've been asked for a RAMS and don't have the time or the confidence to write one that will actually get accepted first time, that's exactly what I do. I write RAMS and method statements for UK construction sites, working from the details of your actual job rather than a stock template. You can see the packages and get a quote here: https://www.fiverr.com/tonycarlyon/write-a-professional-rams-and-method-statement-for-your-uk-construction-site

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