What are RAMS (Risk Assessment and Method Statement)?

You will not find the word RAMS in UK health and safety law. It is the name the construction industry uses for two documents kept together. The risk assessment is a legal requirement. The method statement is required in writing for some work and is expected by principal contractors on most jobs.

Both halves come from the same duty: plan the work so it can be done without risk to health and safety, and tell the people doing it how.

The risk assessment comes from the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR). Regulation 3(1) requires every employer to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to their employees and to anyone else affected by their work. Regulation 3(2) puts the same duty on relevant self-employed people. Where an employer has 5 or more employees, the significant findings and any group of employees identified as especially at risk must be recorded (reg 3(6)). Controls should follow the general principles of prevention in Schedule 1, starting with avoiding risks and giving collective protection priority over individual protection.

On construction work, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 add duties for every contractor. Under reg 15 a contractor must plan, manage and monitor their work (15(2)), follow the principal contractor's directions and the relevant parts of the construction phase plan (15(3)), only use people with the right skills, knowledge, training and experience (15(7)), and give each worker supervision, instructions and information (15(8)). That information must include a site induction if the principal contractor has not given one, the procedures for serious and imminent danger, and the risks identified by the MHSWR assessment (15(9)).

For the method statement, HSE says the arrangements for demolition, dismantling or structural alteration must be recorded in writing before the work begins, and that this is usually done with a method statement. For other work a method statement is not required by law, but HSE describes it as a proven, practical way to plan, manage and monitor construction work.

Northern Ireland has its own version of CDM, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, enforced by HSENI.

The risk assessment follows HSE's five steps: identify the hazards, assess the risks (who might be harmed and how, what you already do, what more is needed), control the risks, record the findings, and review the controls.

The method statement, in HSE's words, draws together the hazards and controls from the risk assessment and describes in a logical sequence exactly how a job is to be carried out. It can include the company's health and safety organisation, training, and arrangements for serious or imminent danger. HSE notes that the most effective method statements often include diagrams.

The contractor doing the work writes the RAMS, because the MHSWR duty is on the employer or self-employed person doing the work. It should be written by someone who knows the job, with input from the people who will do it; HSE says to involve your employees, as they usually have good ideas. You can do it yourself or appoint a competent person to help.

The law does not prescribe signatures. In practice the author and a manager sign it, the principal contractor signs to accept it, and every worker signs a briefing record. That record is your evidence that you gave workers the information reg 15(9) requires.

MHSWR reg 3(3) says the assessment must be reviewed if there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid or there has been a significant change, and changed where the review shows it needs to be. HSE adds: review the controls to make sure they work, and review when staff, processes, substances or equipment change, when workers spot problems, or after accidents or near misses.

HSE says that where a similar operation is repeated the method statement will be similar from job to job, but where circumstances change markedly it should be revised for each job.

Neither MHSWR reg 3 nor CDM 2015 reg 15 sets a retention period for RAMS. Keep the current version and the signed briefing record on site for the whole job, keep every revision, and keep a copy in your records afterwards in case of a claim, an investigation or a principal contractor audit.

These five documents are often confused on site.

These are the faults principal contractors send back most.

• A method statement that is just a list of headings, with nothing on how each step is done.
• A method sequence that does not match the risk assessment.
• Copying an example and adding your company name. HSE says this would not satisfy the law.
• No reference to the asbestos survey on refurbishment of older buildings.
• Residual risks left at High with no explanation.
• No briefing record, so there is no evidence the crew was told.
• Not revising it when the job changes.