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Daily

The daily site
safety check,
in ten minutes.

A free daily site safety checklist: 20 checks in plain English, each with the regulation behind it or the good practice it rests on. Walk the site and tick what you can actually see.

Published · Last reviewed

Start the checklist → All checklists
Start here

What a daily site
safety check has to cover.

The daily walk is the one inspection that catches things while they are still cheap to fix. It is not a statutory form, but almost every line on it discharges a duty that is: CDM 2015 for welfare, access and site rules, the Work at Height Regulations for edges and ladders, PUWER and LOLER for plant, COSHH for substances. Done properly it takes ten minutes and it is the record that shows the site was managed, not just built.

The duty behind it, who does it, and what an inspector asks for+
Is it a legal requirement?
There is no regulation that says do a daily walk. There are regulations that say excavations must be inspected before each shift (CDM 2015 Reg 22), that welfare must be maintained throughout (Reg 13(4)(c)), and that the principal contractor must plan, manage and monitor the construction phase (Reg 13(1)). The daily check is how you meet those without discovering the gap at the end of the week.
Who does it
Normally the site manager or the person in charge that day. On a single-contractor job it is the contractor. It should be somebody who can actually stop the work: a checklist filled in by somebody with no authority to change anything is a record of a problem, not a control.
What an inspector asks
Not for the checklist. For the action that followed it. A sheet with a fail on it and a dated fix beside it is stronger evidence than a fortnight of clean sheets, because it shows the system found something and closed it.
Where it overlaps
Weekly inspections go deeper on scaffold, plant and permits. The daily check is the surface scan: access, welfare, fire, edges, housekeeping. Run both and the weekly one stops being the first time anybody notices.
What this checklist covers
20 checks across three sections: 4 before the gate opens, 12 through the working day, 4 before the site is locked. Each entry names the regulation it comes from, or says plainly where it is good practice rather than a statutory duty.
Before the gate opens

Before the gate opens.

The boundary, the way in and the way round. Ten minutes here saves the incident that happens in the first hour.

Through the working day

Through the working day.

The twelve things that change hour to hour. Most of the audit evidence, and most of the accidents, sit here.

Before you lock up

Before you lock up.

What turns a walk into a record: what you found, who is fixing it, and the site left safe for the people who are not here.

A starting point for your own review, not legal advice. Always check against the current regulations and HSE guidance. Put your own company in the field above and the PDF carries your name instead of ours. Ticks, notes and site details stay in your browser. Nothing is sent to us.

Download

Or use it as a printable template.

Download the blank daily site safety checklist as a PDF, or work through the list above on screen and save that instead, dated and carrying the site, the person who prepared it and the score out of 20. Nothing is gated: no email address to hand over, no account to create, no trial to start.

Download the blank template (PDF) PDF · 20 checks · 70 KB · free, no sign-up
A blank template
The PDF above carries all 20 checks, each with the regulation it comes from and a ruled line for the evidence, the owner and the date. Print it and fill it in on site.
Or a completed record
Work through it on screen first and Save as PDF produces a dated record of what was in place and what was not, with your evidence notes typed against each check.
Your ticks stay in your browser
Ticks, notes and site details are held on this device only. Nothing is sent to us, so you can close the tab and pick it up tomorrow on the same machine.
Your name on it, not ours
Put your company in the field above and the downloaded PDF carries your letterhead instead of Unibuild's. It is free: a sheet you hand to a client should be able to have your name on it.

Worth knowing. A checklist filled in once, the week of an audit, is a snapshot. The evidence behind it is either generated as the work runs or reconstructed under pressure, and that is the difference between a template and a record. It is also what the health and safety module is for.

By duty holder

The same daily check,
read by role.

Nobody is ever asked for all 20 at once. These are the same checks above, grouped by whoever normally answers for them.

Site manager

The whole sheet, most days. Boundary, access, welfare, fire, housekeeping and the close-out are the ones that are unambiguously yours: items 1 to 5 of the opening section and the whole of the closing one.

Principal contractor

The duty to plan, manage and monitor the construction phase under Reg 13(1) is what this checklist discharges day to day. Segregation, welfare, emergency arrangements and site rules are the ones an inspector traces back to you.

Contractors and gangs

Work at height, excavations, plant, electrical, COSHH and PPE for their own activities: items 6 to 11 of the working day. Each contractor carries these for its own work whether or not anybody walks round.

Health and safety adviser

The pattern rather than the day. Repeated fails on the same line are the finding; a fortnight of clean sheets on a busy site usually means the walk is not happening.

Plant and equipment

Item 8 of the working day, backed by the operator's own daily record and the LOLER thorough examination certificate. The daily walk confirms it is happening, it does not replace it.

Whoever is on call

The closing section. Isolation, security and the handover of anything still open are what protect the people who come on site when nobody expects them.

After the checklist

You shouldn't need
this checklist.

On the platform the daily walk is recorded as it happens, with the photograph attached and the action assigned before anybody leaves site. The evidence is already there when somebody asks for it.

Questions

What people ask before
they use the checklist.

The questions that come up most often around a daily site safety checklist, answered against the regulations rather than around them.

Is a daily site safety check a legal requirement?+
There is no regulation that names a daily walk. There are several that it discharges: CDM 2015 Reg 13(1) puts the principal contractor under a duty to plan, manage and monitor the construction phase, Reg 22 requires an excavation to be inspected before each shift, and Reg 13(4)(c) requires welfare to be maintained throughout. The walk is the practical way to meet them, and it is the record that shows you did.
Who should carry out the daily site safety check?+
The person in charge of the site that day, normally the site manager, and on a single-contractor job the contractor. It matters that it is somebody who can stop the work: a checklist completed by somebody with no authority to change anything records a problem rather than controlling it.
How long should it take?+
Ten minutes on a small site, half an hour on a large one. If it is taking longer than that every day, the site has a housekeeping problem rather than a paperwork problem. If it is taking two minutes, it is being filled in at the desk.
What is the difference between a daily check and a weekly inspection?+
The daily check is a surface scan of the things that change hour to hour: access, welfare, fire, edges, housekeeping. The weekly inspection goes deeper and is where scaffold handover records, plant certificates, permits and training expiry get looked at properly. Run both and the weekly one stops being the first time anybody notices.
What do I do when something fails?+
Put an owner and a date against it before you leave the item. A fail with a named person and a deadline is a control; a fail with nothing beside it is a written admission. Serious enough and the work stops until it is fixed, and that decision belongs to whoever is running the site, not to the checklist.
How long should we keep completed daily checks?+
There is no single retention period in the regulations. Three years is the common practice, which lines up with the ordinary limitation period for a personal injury claim, and longer where the work involved asbestos, lead or anything with a long latency. Keep them retrievable by date and by site rather than in a pile.
Does a clean sheet every day look suspicious?+
To an experienced inspector, yes. Real sites generate findings. A run of perfect sheets usually means the walk is not happening or the person doing it does not want to write anything down, and both are worse than the finding would have been.
Is this checklist free, and do I have to sign up?+
It is free and there is nothing to sign up for. No email address, no account, no trial. Tick the 20 checks above, add evidence notes if you want them, and download the result as a PDF. Ticks, notes and site details are held in your own browser and nothing is sent to us.
Can I put my own company name on the PDF?+
Yes. There is a company field beside the site and the person completing it, and whatever you put there becomes the letterhead on the downloaded PDF instead of ours. It is a free checklist: a sheet you hand to a client should be able to carry your name.
Does Unibuild do this for me?+
No supplier makes a business compliant, and be wary of one that says its software does. What the platform does is hold the record: the check, the person, the date, the photograph and the action that followed, retrievable by site and by date with an audit trail behind it. The duty stays with the duty holder. More on the health and safety module.
Next step

Ten minutes,
tomorrow morning.

Walk one of your sites with this open and see what it finds. If it finds nothing, the sheet is wrong or the walk is.

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