Construction RAMS
Risk assessment and method statements for construction projects, phase by phase.
"Construction" isn't one activity — it's a sequence of phases, each with its own trades, plant and hazards, often overlapping on the same live site. A RAMS that tries to cover a whole build in one generic document is either too vague to mean anything or wrong for most of the work it describes — and a principal contractor knows that the moment they read it. Here's what a construction RAMS has to account for across the phases of a build, so you know what good looks like before you submit one.
Why a construction RAMS has to be split by phase
The most common failing is treating a build as a single task. The job changes completely as it moves through its phases — different trades, different plant, different risk profiles — and the phases overlap, so one stage's work becomes the next one's hazard. A document that doesn't break the job down phase by phase, and activity by activity, can't reflect that, and it won't survive scrutiny from anyone who knows what they're reading.
Phase 1 — Enabling works & site set-up
Before the build proper: site establishment, hoarding and fencing, welfare, temporary services, demolition and any site clearance.
- Site security and the public — boundaries, hoarding, keeping the public and site apart.
- Demolition — its own serious hazard set: structural collapse, dust, and what's left in the ground.
- Temporary services and welfare — getting power, water and welfare onto a bare site safely.
- Traffic and access — establishing how plant and deliveries get on and off before anything's built.
Phase 2 — Substructure & groundworks
Excavation, foundations, drainage and below-ground services — where some of the most serious risks on any build live.
- Excavation collapse — unsupported or poorly supported trenches and dig faces.
- Buried services — striking live cables, gas or water that wasn't located before digging.
- Plant and people — excavators, dumpers, and the interface between heavy plant and operatives on foot.
- Ground and water — unstable ground, flooding, and deep excavations that become confined spaces.
Phase 3 — Superstructure
The build going up — frame, walls, floors, structural steel or timber, roof. The hazards move upward with the work.
- Working at height — scaffolds, leading edges, steelwork and partially built structures.
- Lifting operations — cranes, telehandlers and the loads they swing over a live site.
- Structural stability — temporary works, and the risk during erection before everything's tied in.
- Falling materials — tools, blocks and debris from height onto people below.
Phase 4 — Fit-out & finishes
The inside work — M&E first and second fix, plastering, joinery, decorating — where the site fills up with trades.
- Multiple trades, shared space — sparkies, plumbers, joiners and decorators working over and around each other, where one trade's job is another's hazard.
- Dust and COSHH — cutting and sanding, and the adhesives, sealants and finishes that come with finishing.
- Electrical — second-fix electrical work and testing as systems go live.
- Manual handling and access — materials moved through a building that's still a working site.
Phase 5 — External works & handover
Finishing outside and closing the job out — hard and soft landscaping, drainage connections, road and path surfacing, snagging.
- Plant and surfacing — rollers, pavers and hot materials, often with the public closer than before.
- Reduced workforce, dropped guard — the end-of-job phase where complacency creeps in.
- Reinstatement and clearance — removing temporary works and edge protection safely, in the right order.
The risks that run through every phase
Some hazards don't belong to one phase — they're there start to finish:
- Working at height — the single biggest killer in construction, in nearly every phase of a build.
- Plant and traffic — keeping vehicles and people apart, all the way through.
- Manual handling, HAVS and noise — across every trade and every stage.
- CDM duties — this is construction proper, so the construction phase plan and the principal contractor and designer duties sit over the top of the work.
- Welfare, power and PPE — site tools running off 110v through a transformer, or cordless batteries; welfare and PPE suited to each phase.
What a construction RAMS that passes scrutiny looks like
- breaks the work down phase by phase and activity by activity, not "construction" as one block
- is specific to the site — its ground, its access, its sequence, the other trades on it — not a generic build document
- accounts for the phases overlapping, where one activity creates risk for another
- sits properly under the CDM framework and the construction phase plan
- sets out the method for each activity in sequence
- names the competencies, plant, PPE and emergency arrangements for that job
- is reviewed by a competent person and briefed to everyone on site
"Specific to the site and sequence" is the whole game — and it's exactly what a downloaded template can't give you.
RAMS for specific trades
Briefkit also writes RAMS built around individual trades:
Get a construction RAMS written for your job
Briefkit writes the whole thing — phase by phase, the trades involved, the cross-cutting hazards, specific to your actual site and sequence, ready to review and sign off — in minutes, for £30. One job, one fee.