Health and safety
The safety paperwork
The safety paperwork
that has to exist.
13 articles on what the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and RIDDOR require, who holds each duty, and what an inspector asks to see first.
13 articles
Health and safety, in one place.
CDM duties attach by what a firm actually does on a project, not by what its contract calls it. A subcontractor who ends up being the only contractor on site becomes the principal contractor whether or not anybody sends a letter saying so, and the duties that come with it start on the day the work does.
The articles below take one duty or one document each. If you want to check a live project rather than read about it, the CDM checklist works through the same ground in about four minutes and sends nothing anywhere.
Fire door classification: certified, notional and nominal doors explainedMost surveys of existing buildings find all three. What each classification means, the evidence that decides it, and what it changes for repair, replacement and the record kept for each door.Read it →
The CDM documents, and what has to be in each oneCDM 2015 names four documents and says what each one has to contain. It says nothing about what they should look like, which is why there is no official template.Read it →
The temporary works register, and who signs the permit to loadPropping, formwork, edge protection and the excavation support nobody designed. What the register holds, what a check category means, and why the permit to load is the entry that matters.Read it →
Permits to work, and the six a site actually issuesHot work, confined space, work at height, isolation, excavation and access. What a permit is for, who may sign one, and why the time it was raised matters more than the form it was raised on.Read it →
Site induction, and what has to be on record before anybody startsThe half hour that decides whether you can prove competence a year later. What an induction has to cover, what to capture while the person is in front of you, and why agency labour is where it breaks.Read it →
Gateway 2, and what it does to a programmeApproval has to be granted before construction starts, and the wait has improved sharply: a median of 22 weeks at June 2026 against 43 a year earlier. What that means if you are not the applicant.Read it →
The certificates that expire without anybody noticingInsurance, cards, plant inspections, training and first aid all run out on different dates, and nothing about your file changes on the day one of them does. What has to watch them.Read it →When an HSE inspector turns up on siteWhat they can do, what they ask to see and in what order, what a Notification of Contravention means, and what the visit can cost you at £188 an hour.Read it →
RIDDOR, what has to be reported and by whenThree different clocks run on three different categories, and the one firms miss is the fifteen days, which counts from the accident rather than from the day you realised.Read it →When a job becomes notifiable, and who tells the HSETwo thresholds, either of which triggers it, and a duty that sits with the client rather than with you. How to work out whether your job crosses them.Read it →
Which CSCS card, and who actually checks itSeven colours, different qualifications behind each, and a five year clock on most of them. What each card is for, and why it is not a legal requirement but still stops you at the gate.Read it →When you become the principal contractor, and when you do notA second contractor on the job is what triggers the appointment, whatever the size of the firm. Who holds the duties when nobody is appointed in writing, and what lands on you when you are.Read it →
RAMS that hold upWhat an inspector is actually looking for in a risk assessment and method statement, and the difference between a document that exists and one that is doing its job.Read it →Other subjects
Site servicesThe three services a site cannot open without, what each one costs to put in, and the compliance estate that sits behind them once it is running.3 articlesGetting paidTen articles on what the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 gives a subcontractor: a right to be paid on a fixed timetable, and remedies for when that timetable is missed.10 articlesCommercialEleven articles on the commercial side of a contracting business: what belongs in a price, what routinely gets left out of one, and where the margin goes between winning a job and closing the final account.11 articlesHealth and safety13 articles on what the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and RIDDOR require, who holds each duty, and what an inspector asks to see first.13 articlesTax and CISSeven articles on the two tax regimes that touch almost every construction payment made in the UK, and the deadlines that carry an automatic penalty when they slip.7 articlesChoosing softwareTwelve articles written for the person who has to make the decision rather than the person selling into it, including what the money goes on, what the support arrangement is really worth, and where the systems you already run reach their limit.12 articlesWinning workThree articles on the paperwork that decides whether you are allowed to price a job at all, which is a different problem from pricing it well.3 articlesReducing riskSix articles on spotting a main contractor in difficulty early enough to act on it, and on what can still be recovered once it is too late to.6 articlesSubcontractorsFinding them, checking them, and paying them without an argument about what the invoice should have said.3 articlesPlant and assetsPlant and stock cost money in the same quiet ways: kit nobody can find, materials bought twice, a delivery never checked against the order, hire nobody stopped, and an examination date nobody was watching.6 articles
Next step
The safety record, assembled as the work happens.
An inspector asks for the RAMS, the permit, the training record and the certificate. The firms that struggle are the ones assembling those afterwards. Unibuild holds each against the project and the person who holds it, with every expiry date on a forward window.