Who should write a RAMS?
The person who will supervise the job should be able to defend every line. Competence is knowledge of this site, not a job title.
The useful author is the person who will be asked, on the pavement, why the ladder is there. That is usually the supervisor or the lead operative. An administrator can type. They should not invent the isolation, the tie pattern, or the check-call rule.
Competence in UK health and safety is knowledge, experience and the ability to see this job. It is not a certificate on the van by itself. An SIA licence, a CSCS card or an ECS card shows something about the person. It does not describe the address.
A sensible split
- The supervisor drafts the hazards and the sequence for this visit.
- A competent person, who may be the same individual if they really are competent, reads it against the site and amends it.
- The operatives hear it and sign the briefing. Signing is not authorship. The guide to briefing and signing covers that confusion.
If the supervisor has never done this trade, start from the matching sample rather than a general file. Electrical work should not begin from a general template with the word “sparks” pasted in.
What not to delegate
Do not ask a junior to “find a RAMS online” the night before. Those files travel between companies with the last site’s hospital still in the footer. Do not treat a principal contractor’s blank as permission to write “as per site rules” in every box. Their rules matter. They are not your method.
After it is written
The author does not take the legal duty away from the employer or the self-employed person. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 still sits with the duty holder. A draft from RamsBox is there to edit. It is not a signature, and it is not advice. If you are still weighing whether the document is required at all, start with is a RAMS a legal requirement?.