What a RAMS has to contain
Every free RAMS template is the same two things: a Word file with empty boxes, or a form that wants your email and then sends you a Word file with empty boxes. That is stationery, not a risk assessment. Here is what the finished document actually needs on it.
- The job, the site, the client and the date, so it is clear which works it covers.
- A description of the works in plain terms.
- The significant hazards, who might be harmed by each, and the control measures that reduce the risk so far as is reasonably practicable.
- The sequence of works, step by step, in the order they will actually happen.
- PPE, first aid arrangements and what happens in an emergency.
- A record that the operatives doing the work have been briefed on it and signed.
Pick the hazards that apply and the control measures arrive already written, in the language a principal contractor expects to read. You edit the lines that do not match the job. What comes out is a paginated PDF with your logo on it and a briefing record on the back.
Is a RAMS a legal requirement?
Half of it is, and the half that is not is the half you will be asked for first.
The risk assessment is statutory. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require you to carry one out, and to record it if you have five or more employees. The method statement is not a statutory document at all. It exists because almost every principal contractor will ask for one before they let you through the gate, and because you cannot sensibly assess the risks of a sequence of works you have not written down.
That is also why the method statement comes first in the document this builds. You assess the risks of a described sequence, not the other way round, and a reviewer who does this for a living will notice if it is backwards.
Who has to sign a RAMS
The operatives doing the work, on site, before they start. This is the part that catches people out more than anything else on the page.
A perfect RAMS sitting in a folder that nobody on site has read is worth nothing, and the briefing sheet is the first thing an inspector asks for after an incident. So the briefing record is on the back of every document this generates, with ruled signature lines whether or not you typed anything into them, because it gets signed with a pen by people who were never sitting at the computer.
Why the controls are a starting point, not an assessment
Because working at height on a two storey new build and working at height over a live railway are the same hazard and completely different assessments.
Every control measure in the library is one a competent person would recognise, and every one is editable, because the generic version is never quite the job. The document says so on its face. That is not there to shed responsibility, it is there because it is true: a competent person has to review it against the actual site, sequence and conditions before work begins.
What this removes is the blank page and the typing, which is the part that makes people put it off until the morning it is due.
Your logo on it, and no watermark
Set your logo, company details, accent colour and registration numbers once under your branding and every document from then on carries them, on every page rather than just the first.
There is no watermark, no page limit, no sample stamp and no degraded free version. The only thing on the document that is not yours is one grey line at the bottom saying where it came from, and that line is the entire reason none of this needs your email address.
The client, the site address and the operatives stay put
The hazard library, the document assembly and the PDF generation all happen on your device.
So the project name, the client, the site address and the operatives' names never reach a server. Your branding is stored in your own browser and is never uploaded, because there is no account and nothing to upload it to. That matters more than it sounds when the job reference alone tells someone which contract you are working on.
Common questions
What does RAMS stand for?
Risk Assessment and Method Statement. It is two documents that get bound together and asked for as one, which is why it is written as a single word on nearly every site in the country. The risk assessment is the part with a legal footing behind it; the method statement is the part principal contractors ask for.
How long should a RAMS be?
As long as the job needs and no longer. A forty page RAMS for a two day job is a document nobody on site will read, which defeats the point of writing it: the people doing the work are supposed to be briefed on it. Two or three pages that name the real hazards beats twenty pages of boilerplate every time, and it is far easier to defend if something happens.
Does a RAMS expire?
There is no expiry date in law. What there is, under MHSWR 1999 regulation 3, is a duty to review it if there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid or if there has been a significant change. In practice that means the job changing, an incident or near miss, new equipment or substances, new people, or a change in the site conditions. An annual review is a sensible habit, not a legal requirement.
Can I reuse the same RAMS on the next job?
As a starting point, yes, and everybody does. As a finished document, no. A RAMS that names the wrong site, the wrong client or hazards that are not present on this job is worse than none, because it demonstrates the assessment was not actually made for these works. Change the site details, then read every hazard line and delete the ones that do not apply.
Who is competent to write one?
Somebody who knows the work well enough to say what will realistically go wrong and what will realistically stop it. That is usually the person running the job rather than a consultant who has never seen the site. Competence in the regulations means the training, knowledge and experience to do it, not a qualification with a number.
Is a generic RAMS acceptable to a principal contractor?
Increasingly not. A template with the trade swapped in is the thing they see forty times a week and it is the reason so many get rejected and sent back. What gets accepted is a document that names this site, this sequence and the hazards someone would actually meet doing it. The pre-written controls here are there to save typing, not to be submitted untouched.
Is it really free, and is there a watermark?
Free, with no account, no email and no watermark. Your own logo goes on it if you want one, and ours never does. The document is generated in your browser, so there is no server to pay for and nothing to recover the cost of.