Guide
What is RAMS? Risk assessments and method statements explained
If you work on other people's sites, sooner or later someone asks for "your RAMS" before you can start. Here's what the document is, what the law actually requires, when UK trades need one, and what separates a RAMS that protects people from one that just fills a folder.
This guide is general information, not legal or compliance advice.
What does RAMS stand for?
RAMS stands for Risk Assessment and Method Statement — two documents, usually issued together as one pack. The risk assessment identifies what could cause harm on the job and what you'll do about it. The method statement describes, step by step, how the work will actually be carried out safely.
In UK construction and trades work, "RAMS" has become shorthand for the safety paperwork a contractor produces before starting on site. When a principal contractor or a commercial client asks for your RAMS, they want to see that you've thought about this specific job, on this specific site, before anyone picks up a tool.
Risk assessment vs method statement
The two halves do different jobs, and running them together is what makes the pack useful.
The risk assessment answers "what could go wrong?". It lists the hazards the work creates — live circuits, work at height, dust, manual handling — who could be harmed, how likely and how serious the harm is, and the control measures that bring the risk down to an acceptable level. It's about judgement, not box-ticking: the hazards on a loft rewire are not the hazards on a plant-room boiler swap.
The method statement answers "how will the work be done?". It sets out the sequence of work in order: access, isolation, the task itself, testing, reinstatement, waste. A good one reads like instructions a competent tradesperson could follow — including the controls from the risk assessment at the point in the sequence where they apply, not in a separate list nobody cross-references.
When do UK trades need RAMS?
Strictly, no regulation uses the word "RAMS". What the law requires is behind it. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require every employer to assess the risks their work creates, and to record the significant findings if they employ five or more people. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 — CDM 2015 — apply to all construction work, however small, and require contractors to plan, manage and monitor their work so it's carried out safely.
The method statement is how the industry demonstrates that planning. On any site with a principal contractor, expect RAMS to be reviewed before you're allowed to start — it's a standing condition of most site inductions. Commercial clients, facilities managers, housing providers and main contractors ask for the same thing, and many won't put you on the approved list without it.
So the practical answer for a trades business: if the job is on a construction site, in commercial premises, or for a client with their own safety procedures, you need RAMS. For guidance on risk assessment itself, the HSE's own material at hse.gov.uk is the place to start — it's free and written for employers.
Doing RAMS in Word every time? AllForProjects builds RAMS from reusable templates tied to the job and site, shared with the team and the engineer's phone.
See RAMS & site safety software ›What a good RAMS contains
There's no prescribed format, but a RAMS that reviewers accept first time usually covers:
- ›Scope of works — what's being done, where, and for whom
- ›Site details — address, access, welfare, site-specific rules and restrictions
- ›The hazards identified, who could be harmed, and the control measures for each
- ›The sequence of work, step by step, with controls at the point they apply
- ›Plant, tools and equipment to be used, and any certification they need
- ›PPE required for each stage of the task
- ›Competence — who is doing the work and the qualifications that back it
- ›Emergency arrangements — first aid, fire, escape routes, who to contact
- ›Named responsibilities, a review date, and sign-off by the people doing the work
The last line matters more than it looks. A RAMS the operatives have read and signed is evidence the briefing happened; one that lived in the office is evidence it didn't.
Common RAMS mistakes
- ›The generic template, unedited. A RAMS that mentions hazards you don't have and misses the ones you do is worse than useless — reviewers spot a copy-paste in seconds, and it tells them you haven't looked at the site.
- ›Too long to read. Padding a RAMS with boilerplate to look thorough guarantees nobody on the tools reads it. Cover the real risks properly and stop.
- ›Written after the work started. A RAMS produced to satisfy an audit after the fact protects nobody and is obvious on inspection.
- ›Never briefed. If the people doing the job haven't seen it, the document has failed at its one purpose. Brief it, get it acknowledged, keep the record.
- ›Never reviewed. Sites change. If the scaffold came down or the sequence changed, the RAMS should change with it.
How AllForProjects handles RAMS
In AllForProjects, RAMS are built from reusable assessment templates for your common tasks, then tied to the specific job and site — so the site-specific part gets done instead of skipped. The finished document is shared with the team and available on the engineer's phone, and it sits alongside the job's toolbox talks, pre-start checks and attendance log rather than in a folder on someone's laptop.
See how it fits with Construction Phase Plans, toolbox talks and site attendance on the site safety software page.
RAMS FAQs
Is RAMS a legal requirement? +
Not under that name. UK law requires employers to assess the risks of their work, and to record the significant findings if they employ five or more people. A method statement is not named in any regulation, but it is the standard way of showing you have planned the work safely, and most principal contractors and commercial clients will not let you start without one. In practice, treat RAMS as required for site work.
Who writes the RAMS? +
Someone who understands both the task and the site — usually the contractor doing the work, not the client. In a small firm that is typically the owner or the supervisor running the job. You can buy generic templates, but the person signing it off needs to make it specific to the actual site, and the people doing the work need to read and acknowledge it.
How long should a RAMS be? +
As short as it can be while still covering the real hazards and the actual sequence of work. For routine domestic or small commercial jobs, a few pages is normal. A twenty-page document nobody reads protects no one; a focused document the team has actually read and signed does.
Do sole traders need RAMS? +
The duty to record a risk assessment in writing applies at five or more employees, but a sole trader still has to assess risks, and any principal contractor or commercial client can make RAMS a condition of getting on site — and usually does. If you work on other people's sites, expect to produce one regardless of headcount.
Stop rebuilding RAMS from an old Word file
AllForProjects is in private beta ahead of public launch. Join the waitlist and we'll let you know the moment it opens.
Or talk to us first.