A template gets you to a sound starting point. What a principal contractor or an assessor reads is whether the document describes this job. Run through these before you send it — they are the things that get a RAMS returned.
Nothing on this list guarantees acceptance: every principal contractor has its own site rules, and some ask for things others don't. It is the standard check a reviewer on the approving side of the desk makes.
The job, not the trade
- [ ] Site, address and project reference are filled in, and match the principal contractor's paperwork.
- [ ] The scope says what you are doing here — the areas, the floors, the duration — and what is excluded.
- [ ] The sequence of work matches how you will actually do it on this site, not how the job is usually done.
The people
- [ ] A named supervisor, and the competence cards or tickets the work needs (for example CSCS, IPAF, PASMA, CPCS/NPORS, SSSTS) listed against named people.
- [ ] Who prepared it and who accepted it is signed and dated in the sign-off section.
- [ ] The briefing record is ready for everyone working under it to sign before they start.
The site's own rules
- [ ] Permits the site operates are named — hot works, isolation, excavation, roof work — with the permit number field left for the day.
- [ ] Site information has been read and used: the asbestos register, services drawings, the construction phase plan, delivery windows, first aid and fire arrangements.
- [ ] Hazards specific to this site are added — occupied areas, the public, a live hospital ward, a school run past the gate — not just the template's list.
The assessment itself
- [ ] Every risk is scored, before and after controls, by someone who has looked at the site. A column of identical scores gets sent back.
- [ ] COSHH assessments are attached for the substances you will use, with the products named.
- [ ] The revision is current: check the revisions page before submitting — your download link always serves the latest revision.
Where the documents apply
The documents are written for sites in Great Britain. The health and safety law they cite applies in England, Scotland and Wales; where a document cites environmental, waste or building law it names the law for England (and Wales where it says so), so check the equivalent for a site in Scotland or Wales. Northern Ireland has its own health and safety legislation and is not covered.
If a principal contractor returns one of our documents with written reasons, email them to hello@kubitdocs.com. A person reads every email and replies within one working day.
Read more: why RAMS get rejected, and what a good one contains · why we don't say "compliant"