Risk Assessments and Method Statements — RAMS — are the backbone of health and safety compliance in UK construction and trades. If you work on commercial sites, do council contracts, or employ anyone, you need them. Here's how to write them properly.
What Are RAMS?
RAMS is two documents in one:
- Risk Assessment (RA): Identifies hazards on a job, rates their severity and likelihood, and lists the control measures you'll use to reduce risk
- Method Statement (MS): Describes step-by-step how the work will be carried out safely
Together they demonstrate that you've thought about the risks before starting work and have a plan to manage them. Principal contractors on commercial sites will refuse entry without them.
When You Need RAMS
Legally, every employer must conduct risk assessments under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Method statements aren't explicitly required by law, but they're:
- Required by virtually every commercial site and principal contractor
- Expected by local authorities on council contracts
- Asked for by insurance companies after incidents
- Required under CDM 2015 for notifiable projects
In practice, if you work on anything beyond basic domestic jobs, you need RAMS.
Structure of a Risk Assessment
A proper risk assessment covers:
1. Activity Description
What work is being done? "Boiler replacement in ground-floor kitchen" is better than "plumbing work."
2. Hazard Identification
List every hazard associated with the task:
- Working with gas (CO poisoning, explosion)
- Hot surfaces (burns)
- Electrical isolation (electrocution)
- Manual handling (back injury from lifting boiler)
- Asbestos (if building is pre-2000)
- Slips, trips, falls
3. Risk Rating
Rate each hazard using a severity × likelihood matrix:
| Low likelihood | Medium | High |
|---|
| **Low severity** | 1 (trivial) | 2 (tolerable) | 3 (moderate) |
|---|
| **Medium severity** | 2 (tolerable) | 4 (moderate) | 6 (substantial) |
|---|
| **High severity** | 3 (moderate) | 6 (substantial) | 9 (intolerable) |
|---|
4. Control Measures
For each hazard, list what you'll do to reduce the risk. Follow the hierarchy of controls: eliminate → substitute → engineering controls → administrative controls → PPE.
5. Residual Risk
After applying controls, re-rate the risk. This should be lower than the initial rating.
Structure of a Method Statement
A method statement describes:
- Scope of work: What, where, when
- Personnel: Who's doing the work, what qualifications they hold
- Sequence of operations: Step-by-step work procedure
- Plant and equipment: Tools, machinery, PPE required
- Emergency procedures: What to do if something goes wrong
- Environmental controls: Waste disposal, dust, noise management
Common Mistakes
- Generic RAMS: Copy-pasting the same document for every job. Each RAMS should be specific to the actual work and site.
- No site-specific hazards: A RAMS for roofing work that doesn't mention the actual roof height, access method, and edge protection isn't worth the paper it's on.
- Not reviewing: RAMS should be reviewed if conditions change — weather, scope, personnel.
- Workers haven't read them: Your team need to sign that they've read and understood the RAMS before starting work.
How AI Changes RAMS
Writing RAMS from scratch takes 30–60 minutes per job. That's a significant admin burden, especially if you're doing 10+ jobs a week.
Gaffer's AI platform generates site-specific RAMS in under 2 minutes. It uses the job details you've already entered — trade type, site address, scope of work — to produce a complete risk assessment and method statement with the correct hazards, control measures, and PPE requirements.
The output isn't a generic template. It's tailored to your specific job and trade. A roofing RAMS includes working at height protocols. A gas RAMS includes Gas Safe procedures. An electrical RAMS includes isolation procedures.
You review it, adjust anything specific to the site, and it's ready. Your team sign it digitally on the field team app.
Tracking Compliance
Gaffer's H&S Compliance Suite doesn't just generate RAMS — it tracks everything:
- Which jobs have RAMS, which don't
- Worker certification expiry dates (Gas Safe, NICEIC, CSCS, IPAF, PASMA)
- Who's signed which RAMS
- Toolbox talk records
- Training matrices
When a principal contractor asks "show me your compliance records", you open Gaffer and it's all there.
Try our free RAMS generator to see how it works — no account needed.