RAMS sign-off from every subcontractor, with proof

What are RAMS and who signs them off?

RAMS is the combined document UK construction uses to identify the hazards of a specific activity, assess the risks, and set out the safe step-by-step method for doing the work. It sits under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 for any activity with a significant risk.

Under CDM 2015 regulation 13 the principal contractor plans, manages and monitors the construction phase and coordinates health and safety. In practice that means most principal contractors require RAMS from every subcontractor before they start, review them against the construction phase plan and the site’s own hazards, and approve them.

There are two signatures in the process: the principal contractor’s acceptance of the RAMS, and the operatives’ acknowledgement at the briefing that they have been taken through it. Both are supposed to happen before the work does.

What should the RAMS sign-off record?

The Health and Safety Executive doesn't prescribe a form, and the value of the sign-off is in showing that the right document was reviewed by the right person before the right date. A RAMS approved after the trade has started is a record of a process that didn't work.

The briefing record is separate from the approval and matters just as much: it is what shows the people doing the work knew the method.

• The subcontractor, the activity and the location on site the RAMS covers
• The revision of the RAMS being approved and the date it was received
• Who reviewed it for the principal contractor, and their acceptance or the changes required
• The date the work is permitted to start
• A record of the site briefing, with the operatives who attended

What goes wrong when RAMS aren't signed off before work starts?

The trade turns up on Monday, the RAMS is in an email from Friday afternoon that nobody opened, and the work starts anyway because the programme says so. Nothing happens, usually. When something does happen, the first question from the HSE or the insurer is whether the RAMS was reviewed and approved before the work began, and the answer is in an inbox.

The commercial version of the problem is a subcontractor held off site because their RAMS hasn't been approved, with the principal contractor’s site manager chasing a director who is on another job. A day lost to paperwork that could have been signed on a phone the evening before.

The fix is to treat the RAMS approval as a document that gets signed, dated and kept, rather than an email that gets replied to.

How do I get RAMS signed off with Portal Worx?

The subcontractor sends you their RAMS as a PDF. You upload it to the job in Portal Worx and send it as a link to whoever has to approve it: your site manager, your health and safety lead, or the principal contractor’s representative if you are the subcontractor. They open it on their phone. No account, nothing to install, nothing to learn.

They can mark an area of the document and leave a note (a missing control measure, a step in the wrong order), ask a question, approve or decline. If you asked for it, they must enter a one-time code emailed to them before signing, which shows whoever signed had control of that inbox at that moment. They draw their signature and submit.

A revised RAMS goes out as a new version; it supersedes the old one, and the old one and its notes stay on the record. Anyone who hasn't responded is chased from the same screen.

What does the signed record hold?

The record is dated and signed, pinned to the exact revision of the RAMS the approver saw, with its SHA-256 fingerprint, so the version that was approved can always be told from the one that was not. The notes, the marked areas and every version are kept with the job.

If it is ever asked whether this RAMS was approved before that trade started, the answer is a date on a signed record. A simple electronic signature is admissible evidence in the UK under the Electronic Communications Act 2000, with the weight decided by the court on the record around it.

Where doesn't this fit?

Portal Worx doesn't write or assess RAMS, and it isn't a health and safety management system; it records one person’s approval of one document. A briefing where six operatives sign is six requests or a signed briefing sheet photographed and approved by the supervisor; there's no multiple-approver flow and no delegation. The file must be a PDF, an image or plain text.

It doesn't verify identity: the code proves control of an inbox. The page opens on our domain, not yours.

Common questions

Can the site manager reject a RAMS with a reason?

Yes. They mark the area of the document they object to, write the note, and decline. The subcontractor revises it and it goes out again as a new version. Both versions and the note stay on the record.

Can I use this for the operative briefing too?

Each request is signed by one person, so a briefing is either one request per operative or the signed briefing sheet photographed and approved by the supervisor. The record then holds the sheet and the supervisor’s signature.

Does the subcontractor need an account?

No. They get an email, open the link on their phone and sign. Nothing to install, nothing to learn.

Is there a per-document fee?

No. Requests and links are unlimited on every plan, from £29 a month.

Does this replace our health and safety system?

No. It gives you a signed, dated record that a specific RAMS revision was approved by a specific person before the work started. The system that decides what a RAMS should contain is yours.

Related

• Handover certificate signed on the day
• Variation order sign-off before the work starts
• Dayworks sheets signed the same day