A RAMS document is one file for one task with two halves and a signature block. The first half is the risk assessment: the hazards, who is at risk, the controls, the residual risk. The second is the method statement: the steps of the work with the controls applied at the step where they matter. The signature block is the crew's, after the briefing, and it is what turns a document into a record. Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, cited below, requires every employer to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees, and regulation 3(6) requires an employer with five or more employees to record the significant findings and any group of employees especially at risk. The risk assessment and method statement tool on this site prints the document from your task, free.
Why one document
The method statement is the assessment's controls turned into steps; keeping them apart lets the two disagree, and a method that names a control the assessment never identified is the finding a site audit makes. One document, cross-referenced by hazard number, is what a principal contractor asks for under CDM, cited below.
The assessment half
Task and site specific hazards, each with the people at risk, the likelihood and severity, the control and the residual risk. The HSE's five steps, cited below, are the shape; the tool on this site prints them as rows and counts them.
The method half
The steps in order, each naming the plant, the permit, the PPE and the control it applies, with the exclusion zone, the isolation or the rescue plan at the step where it is needed. Emergency arrangements close the method. The tool builds the steps from the assessment's controls.
The signature block
The author, the reviewer, and every person who will do the work, signing that they were briefed on this version on this date. A RAMS without the crew's signatures is a plan; with them it is evidence. DailyLogDesk Pro keeps the signed document against the job and the version it was signed on.
Questions people ask about rams document
Can a RAMS be generic?
The template can; the document cannot. The hazards and the method are the site's and the task's, or the approver sends it back.
Who approves the RAMS document?
The principal contractor or client's representative on a managed site; the contractor's own competent person elsewhere.
Is the tool free?
Yes, without an account.