What is a RAMS?

RAMS stands for Risk Assessment and Method Statement — two documents that usually travel together as one pack. The risk assessment identifies what could hurt someone during the work and what you'll do about it. The method statement sets out, step by step, how the job will actually be done safely. Between them they answer the two questions every principal contractor asks before letting you on site: what could go wrong, and how are you going to stop it?

Is a RAMS a legal requirement?

The risk assessment is. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 every employer must assess the risks their work creates, and if you employ five or more people the significant findings must be written down. Method statements aren't named in law — but under CDM 2015 contractors must plan, manage and monitor their work so it's carried out safely, and in practice a written method statement is how the industry proves that. Almost every principal contractor in the UK requires RAMS before work starts. No RAMS, no start — that's the reality on most sites.

What a good RAMS contains

• Document control — project, client, revision history, who prepared, checked and approved it
• Scope of works — exactly what's covered (and what isn't)
• Hazard identification — the real hazards of this task, not a generic list
• Control measures — what removes or reduces each risk, following the hierarchy of controls
• Sequence of work — the method, step by step, in the order it will happen
• Plant, equipment and materials — with inspection and certification requirements
• PPE — specific to the task, not just "boots and hi-vis"
• Emergency arrangements — what happens when something goes wrong
• Sign-off sheet — evidence the workforce has been briefed on it

The mistakes that get RAMS rejected

Site managers reject RAMS every day for the same handful of reasons: copied generic content that doesn't match the actual task, hazards with no matching control, a method that says what but never how, missing revision control, and no briefing record. A RAMS that reads like it was written for a different job tells the principal contractor exactly how much care will go into the work itself.

The fast way to get it right

Start from a professionally structured template and adapt it to the job. You keep the document control, the tables, the sign-off sheet and the structure reviewers expect — and spend your time on the bits that matter: the actual hazards and method for your site.

Every Pro Site Docs RAMS is a fully editable Word document with document control, hazard and control tables, plant and materials sections and a sign-off sheet built in — written and reviewed by a named UK construction professional, not generated filler. Single documents are £9, or the Method Statement Library and Risk Assessment Library give you the full sets.

This guide is general information, not site-specific advice. A competent person must review and adapt any document to the specific works before use.