What does RAMS stand for is answered in four words, risk assessment and method statement, and the four words are the document's two halves. The risk assessment: the hazards of a task on a site, who is at risk, the controls and the residual risk. The method statement: the steps of the work with each control applied at the step where it matters. One document, one header, the crew's signatures at the end. The HSE's guidance, cited below, gives risk assessment as five steps: identify hazards, assess the risks, control the risks, record your findings, review the controls, and says that if you employ 5 or more people you must record your significant findings. The risk assessment and method statement tool on this site prints it, free.
The RA half
Site-specific hazards, each with who is at risk and how, the likelihood and severity, the control and the residual risk, and the significant findings as a block. 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 MS half
The steps in order, setting up, doing, making safe, with the assessment's control named at the step by its hazard number, and the plant, permits, PPE and emergency arrangements around them. A reviewer runs down the method and finds every hazard's number, or finds the gap.
Why one document
The method is built from the assessment's controls; apart, the two can disagree, and a method that names a control the assessment never found is what an audit finds. Together, cross-referenced by hazard number, the document can be checked.
Who asks for it
Principal contractors under CDM, cited below, before a task starts; clients; inspectors after an incident. DailyLogDesk Pro keeps each signed RAMS against the job; the tool prints it. A RAMS that arrives complete is approved; one that arrives generic is returned, and the task waits.
Questions people ask about what does rams stand for
Is RAMS a legal term?
No; the risk assessment is a legal requirement and the method statement is the industry's way of applying it.
Is RAMS one document or two?
Two halves of one document, cross-referenced, is what approvers expect.
Is the tool free?
Yes, without an account.