RAMS vs a Generic Risk Assessment: Why Sites Reject the Wrong One

Short answer: a generic risk assessment and a RAMS document are not interchangeable, and site managers who accept a generic one from a contractor are storing up problems for themselves. A RAMS (Risk Assessment and Method Statement) sets out both the hazards on a specific job and the exact sequence of work used to control them. A generic risk assessment on its own only covers the first half, and most principal contractors will reject it outright.

Why a generic risk assessment gets bounced

Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015), contractors have a duty to plan, manage and monitor construction work so it is carried out without risk to health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable. A risk assessment produced for one job and reused across several sites, with the site name simply swapped out, does not meet that duty. It has not considered the actual access, the actual plant on site that day, or the actual sequence of trades working around each other. Site managers who see the same generic paperwork turning up week after week, with nothing site specific in it, are right to send it back.

What a proper RAMS actually adds

The method statement half is what generic risk assessments are missing. It describes step by step how the work will be carried out safely: the order of operations, the plant and equipment involved, who is doing what, and the specific controls in place at each stage. Combined with the risk assessment, this gives a principal contractor something they can actually check against what is happening on site, rather than a document that could apply to almost any job anywhere.

Where the legal duty comes from

Beyond CDM 2015, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require every employer to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to their employees while at work. Suitable and sufficient is doing a lot of work in that phrase, and the Health and Safety Executive has been clear for years that a copy paste risk assessment with no method statement behind it usually fails that test on a construction site, where the hazards change from job to job.

What sites actually check for

When a RAMS is submitted, most competent principal contractors and their site managers are checking for a handful of specific things: does it name the actual site and the actual task, does the method statement match what the risk assessment identifies as the main hazards, are the control measures specific rather than generic (suitable PPE will be worn tells them nothing on its own), and has it been signed off by someone competent to do so. A document missing any of these gets rejected, and the delay while a proper one is produced usually costs more than getting it right the first time.

What happens if you turn up without one

Turning up to start work without an accepted RAMS in place can mean the job is simply stopped until one is produced, which costs far more in lost time than getting it right beforehand. On larger sites with an appointed principal contractor, this is not usually negotiable, since letting uncontrolled work start would put their own CDM 2015 duties at risk too.

Getting it right the first time

If a risk assessment on its own has been rejected, the fix is not to staple on a generic method statement either. It needs to be written for that job, on that site, by someone who understands both the hazards and the sequence of work well enough to describe it properly, otherwise it just gets rejected again in a different form.

For a fuller breakdown of what the two parts of a RAMS document actually cover, this explanation of what a risk assessment and method statement actually is is worth a read, and if you are writing the method statement section yourself, this guide to what makes a method statement pass review covers the detail sites are actually checking for.

If you would rather not risk a RAMS bouncing back and delaying the start on site, a professionally written RAMS document for your specific job covers both halves properly from the start, built around the actual site and the actual sequence of work rather than a template.

Comments

Post a Comment

Got a question about your own situation? Ask below and I will get back to you. Comments are checked before they go live so there may be a short delay.

Popular posts from this blog

CDM 2015 Duties Explained for Small Contractors

CDM 2015 applies to every construction project in the UK, not just the big notifiable ones, and it hands small contractors real legal duties whether they realise it or not. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 set out who is responsible for managing health and safety risk at every stage of a build, from a single tradesperson doing a domestic extension to a full site team. If you're a small contractor and you've assumed CDM only applies to large sites with a principal contractor sign on the gate, that assumption is the most common and most costly mistake in the trade. Who counts as what under CDM 2015 The regulations define five duty holders: client, principal designer, principal contractor, designer and contractor. On a small job with only one contractor involved, that contractor takes on the contractor duties directly, which means planning, managing and monitoring the work under their control, and making sure workers are competent and adequately supervi...
Read more

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...
Read more

HMO Fire Safety Requirements, Room by Room

 Short answer: what counts as compliant changes depending on which room you're standing in. HMOs get treated differently to a normal let because more unrelated people are sharing escape routes, so the requirements are more detailed room by room rather than one blanket rule for the whole property. BEDROOMS Doors opening onto an escape route generally need to be fire doors, rated FD30, with a self closer, intumescent strips and smoke seals fitted. Distance matters too: a bedroom should be within 18 metres of a way out, or 7.5 metres if there's only one direction of escape available. Smoke detection in bedrooms is normally covered by the property's interlinked alarm system rather than a standalone unit. KITCHENS Kitchens are usually the highest fire risk room in an HMO, and the requirements reflect that. Fire doors here need to be to the same FD30 standard as bedrooms. Detection is different though, shared kitchens should have heat detectors rather than smoke alarms, since coo...
Read more