A contractor arrives with insurance documents, training cards and a polished set of RAMS. That evidence matters, but it does not make the host business a spectator. The client still needs to define the work, disclose site hazards, test whether the contractor is suitable, coordinate activities and check that the agreed controls survive contact with the real workplace. This contractor management checklist gives UK employers a practical route from selection to safe handback.
Both client and contractor retain responsibilities
HSE is clear that both the business using a contractor and the contractor have health and safety responsibilities. The contractor must manage the risks created by its work. The client must consider how that work could affect its employees, visitors, neighbours and other contractors—and how existing site activities could endanger the contractor.
Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires an employer to conduct its undertaking so that people who are not employees are not exposed to health or safety risks, so far as reasonably practicable. Where employers share a workplace, regulation 11 of the Management Regulations requires cooperation and coordination. A purchase order cannot contract those duties away.
Control should be proportionate. Replacing a tap in an empty office needs less scrutiny than roof work above an occupied factory, electrical isolation in a workshop or hot work beside combustible stock. The risk and complexity—not the contractor's invoice value—should decide the checks.
HSE: Using contractors (INDG368) ↗ · Management Regulations 1999, regulation 11 ↗
Define the job before asking for paperwork
Start with the result required, the physical boundaries, permitted hours, interfaces with production and the condition in which the area must be returned. Identify foreseeable isolations, access equipment, lifting, excavation, work at height, hazardous substances, noise, dust, confined spaces, vehicle movements and public access. Vague scopes produce generic RAMS and last-minute improvisation.
Give bidders the information needed to plan safely: site rules, asbestos information, drawings, live services, traffic routes, restricted areas, fragile surfaces, process hazards and emergency arrangements. Do not assume a specialist contractor already knows a local hazard. Equally, require the contractor to explain the hazards its equipment, materials and sequence will introduce.
For construction work, the commercial client duties under CDM 2015 apply regardless of project size. The client must make suitable management arrangements, appoint organisations with the necessary skills, knowledge, experience and organisational capability, allow enough time and resources, provide pre-construction information and ensure a construction phase plan exists before work begins.
HSE: commercial client duties under CDM 2015 ↗ · Related guide: asbestos management plans →
Select for the actual risk—not the badge collection
Ask for evidence relevant to this job: comparable experience, competent supervision, training or authorisations for safety-critical tasks, equipment inspection arrangements, subcontractor controls and recent performance. Memberships and third-party schemes may support enquiries, but they do not replace checking whether the proposed team and method fit the work in front of you.
Follow up weak or generic answers. Who will be on site? Who can stop the job? What happens if the named supervisor leaves? How will the contractor prevent unauthorised subcontracting? Check that insurance is appropriate, but remember that an insurance certificate describes financial cover; it is not evidence that the work method is safe.
The more serious the credible outcome, the more evidence the client should seek. A sensible record states what was checked, who reviewed it and why the contractor was considered suitable. It does not need to become a procurement obstacle course for low-risk work.
Review RAMS as a working plan
Risk assessments and method statements should match the location, task, people, equipment and sequence. Check whether they address the host's information, simultaneous operations, non-routine stages and foreseeable failure. A document that names another site, relies only on PPE or says little more than ‘take care’ is not ready for acceptance.
A client review is not an exercise in rewriting the contractor's assessment or approving its technical method outside your competence. It is an interface check: has the contractor understood your hazards, and can the proposed controls operate alongside your people and processes? Resolve conflicts before mobilisation and record agreed responsibilities.
A signed RAMS sheet is not the end of the process. If the team, scope, equipment, environment or sequence changes, stop and decide whether the assessment and method need revision. Brief the people doing the work on the final version in a form they understand.
Related guide: getting risk assessments into the workplace →
Check the contractor plan before the team reaches site.
HR + SAFETY can review the scope, site information, RAMS and coordination arrangements for higher-risk contractor work.
Discuss a contractor-work reviewCoordinate induction, permits and emergency arrangements
A contractor induction should cover the hazards and rules the visitor cannot know from their own RAMS: alarm signals, escape routes, assembly points, first-aid arrangements, incident reporting, welfare, traffic routes, restricted zones, isolations and the named site contact. Check understanding rather than collecting a signature alone. Provide suitable communication support where language, literacy, hearing or another need could create a barrier.
Use permits to work where a formal authorisation and handback process is needed—for example certain hot work, confined-space entry, excavation or electrical isolation. A permit is not a general certificate of safety. It should define the controlled task, place, duration, precautions, authorising people, suspension rules and close-out. It cannot rescue unsuitable planning.
If contractor work introduces or materially changes a fire hazard, review and update the statutory fire risk assessment before relying on the existing arrangements. Where the main assessment does not contain enough detail, complete a linked task-specific assessment—for example for hot work—and incorporate its findings into the main FRA, emergency arrangements and controls. Consider alarm or suppression impairments, combustible stock, fire watch, post-work monitoring and safe restoration.
Additional precautions may be necessary where occupants need assistance to escape or where the consequences of fire are greater, such as sleeping accommodation, healthcare settings, crowded premises or locations containing significant hazardous materials. Contractor activity must not undermine personal emergency evacuation plans, compartmentation, escape routes or the protection needed during every occupied period.
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 9 ↗ · Related guide: workplace fire evacuation plans →
Supervise the risk, not the contractor's trade
Agree who monitors the work and how often. The host does not need to direct a competent specialist's every technical move, but it should check the interfaces and agreed precautions: segregation, isolations, access controls, housekeeping, permits and effects on normal operations. Higher-risk or rapidly changing work needs closer oversight.
Give employees and contractors a clear stop-work route. If conditions differ from the plan, a guard or barrier is removed, an isolation cannot be proved, or a serious uncontrolled risk appears, pause the job and involve the responsible people. Commercial pressure and an approaching deadline do not make an unassessed change acceptable.
Record significant inspections, deviations, near misses and corrective actions. After the work, confirm that guards, alarms, fire stopping, services and work areas have been reinstated; collect test results, certificates, drawings or manuals where relevant; and review lessons before using the contractor again.
Contractor management checklist before work starts
Legal requirements and HSE guidance were checked on 22 September 2026. HSE's contractor guidance remains a useful practical framework, while construction work must be managed under the current CDM 2015 duties rather than the older CDM provisions referenced in the original leaflet.
- Define the scope, boundaries, timing, interfaces and handback standard.
- Identify whether CDM, asbestos, fire, electrical or other specific duties apply.
- Give the contractor accurate site-hazard and emergency information.
- Check competence and resources against the actual risk and complexity.
- Confirm who will supervise the work and control any subcontractors.
- Review RAMS for this site, task, sequence and interaction with others.
- Agree isolations, segregation, permits, welfare and stop-work arrangements.
- Induct the people attending and check that they understand the controls.
- Monitor the work proportionately and reassess material changes.
- Complete a controlled handback and retain the records the job produces.
Competent contractors are essential, but appointment is only the start. Define the work, exchange risk information, check the proposed controls, coordinate the site, supervise the important interfaces and complete a safe handback.
This guide provides general information for UK employers. It is not legal advice and should not replace advice based on the facts of a specific matter.