Free health and safety templates for UK trades

Health and safety paperwork has a reputation for being bureaucracy imposed from outside, and the version produced by consultants who have never been on a roof usually deserves it. Done properly it is much simpler: write down the hazards, write down what you do about them, tell everyone on site, and record it. The templates here are built for a small firm doing exactly that.

Risk assessments come first. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 every employer must assess the risks to employees and to others affected by the work, and if you have five or more employees the significant findings must be recorded in writing. Below five you must still do the assessment; recording it is simply sensible, and any commercial client will ask for it regardless of your headcount.

Method statements pair with them. A RAMS pack — risk assessment plus method statement — is now the standard entry requirement for commercial, letting agent and main contractor work. Having a solid generic pack you tailor per job, rather than starting fresh each time, is the difference between quoting for that work and quietly declining it.

COSHH assessments cover the substances trades actually use: solvent cements, fluxes, resins, cleaning chemicals, silica dust from cutting, isocyanates in spray foams. Silica in particular is a serious long-term health risk and a current HSE enforcement priority.

There are also toolbox talk records, accident and near-miss report forms, and a health and safety policy statement — legally required in writing once you have five or more employees, and frequently requested by clients well before that.

None of this replaces competent advice on complex or high-risk work. For ordinary domestic and light commercial jobs it is a proportionate, defensible starting point.