RAMS for Roofing Work (UK)
By the Riskora Editorial Team · Reviewed against our editorial standards · Last reviewed
Generate roofing RAMS that satisfy principal contractor and insurer review — covering HSG33 fragile surface controls, the Work at Height Regulations 2005 hierarchy, hot works permits to BS 9999, and a written rescue from height plan.
UK (RAMS) example document — Two-Storey Rear Extension — 14 Birchwood Lane, Reading. Client: Mr & Mrs A. Whitfield (Private Client). Site: 14 Birchwood Lane, Reading, RG1 5JT. Scope: Construction of a two-storey rear extension (6.4m × 4.2m) to an existing semi-detached dwelling. Works comprise breaking out of existing rear elevation, trench-fill foundations to 1.0m, traditional cavity blockwork to first floor, pre-stressed concrete lintels, timber roof structure with natural slate finish, plus alterations to existing rear wall to form structural opening with rolled steel joist (RSJ 203×102 UB23). Works programmed over 9 weeks with a peak site team of 6 operatives. Hazards assessed: Manual handling — blocks, lintels, plasterboard, Working at height — independent scaffold & roof structure, Buried services strike during excavation, Collapse of excavation / trench wall, Hand-arm vibration (HAVS) — breaking out, drilling, Silica dust — cutting blocks, brick, concrete, Vehicle/pedestrian segregation — narrow domestic street.
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What should a roofing RAMS include?
A roofing RAMS must cover roof construction type (pitched tile/slate, flat felt or single-ply, profiled metal, asbestos cement), fragility status assessed per HSG33, the access strategy following the WAH 2005 hierarchy (avoid → prevent → minimise), edge protection specification to BS EN 13374, hot works permits to BS 9999 / JCoP for any torch-on or hot-air work, weather working windows with wind shut-down thresholds, and a written rescue from height plan addressing suspension trauma.
Roofing Is the Single Biggest Fatality Trade in UK Construction
HSE statistics put falls from height at the top of construction fatality causes year after year, and roofing accounts for the majority of those falls — particularly through fragile surfaces. HSG33 'Health and safety in roof work' makes very specific demands: fragile materials must be identified before access, the Work at Height Regulations 2005 hierarchy (avoid → prevent → minimise) must be applied in order, and rescue from a fall arrest harness must be possible within minutes to avoid suspension trauma. Hot works for felt and single-ply roofing carry additional duties under BS 9999 and the Joint Code of Practice for the Protection from Fire of Construction Sites. A generic 'working at height' RAMS won't satisfy any competent reviewer. Without knowing who actually needs a RAMS, many small firms under-document the highest-risk work they do.
HSG33 'Health and safety in roof work' and the Work at Height Regulations 2005 set out a clear hierarchy: avoid work at height where reasonably practicable, prevent falls through collective measures (scaffold, MEWP, edge protection), and only then resort to fall arrest with a written rescue plan. Roofing work that doesn't reflect this hierarchy in the RAMS will fail any competent review.
How Riskora Helps
Riskora generates roofing RAMS structured around HSG33 and the WAH 2005 hierarchy. The builder prompts for roof type, fragility status, access strategy (independent scaffold, edge protection, MEWP, harness as last resort), hot works permit requirements, weather working windows, and a written rescue plan. For complex projects you may also need a standalone risk assessment or method statement. If you're new to RAMS, our step-by-step guide explains the fundamentals.
Who it's for
- Roofing contractors on domestic re-roofs working to HSG33 fragile surface controls
- Commercial flat roof installers laying single-ply or built-up felt with hot works permits
- Heritage and conservation roofers on listed properties requiring lime-based and lead detail work
- Solar PV installers accessing pitched and flat roofs under MCS scheme requirements
- Industrial roof refurbishment teams replacing asbestos cement and profiled metal sheets
Understand the Fundamentals
Before you generate your document, these guides cover the knowledge that underpins every good RAMS, risk assessment, and method statement.
What Is a RAMS Document?
Understand the two components of a RAMS and why they're required before work begins on site.
How to Write a RAMS Document
A step-by-step guide to structuring your RAMS from project details through to sign-off.
UK Legal Requirements for Risk Assessments
What the law requires under MHSWR 1999, CDM 2015 and the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
Who Needs a RAMS?
Find out whether your work requires a RAMS and who is responsible for producing one.
RAMS vs Risk Assessment — Key Differences
When you need a full RAMS versus a standalone risk assessment, and how the two documents work together.
Construction Safety Documents Explained
An overview of the key safety documents required on UK construction sites and how they relate to each other.
Key Risks and Considerations
- •Falls from leading edge — eaves, verges and openings without guardrails
- •Falls through fragile surfaces — asbestos cement, fibre cement, rooflights, deteriorated boarding (HSG33)
- •Suspension trauma — fall-arrested operative left in harness beyond ~10 minutes
- •Fire from hot works — bitumen torches, hot air welders, chasing on combustible substrates
- •Wind on partially fixed sheets and tarpaulins — sail effect on profiled metal and membrane
- •Asbestos exposure — disturbing cement sheets, AIB soffits, or insulation under roof voids
- •Manual handling at height — tile bundles, sheet metal, lead rolls and felt rolls
- •Falling materials — tiles, fixings and tools dropped onto the public realm or trades below
- •Overhead power lines — domestic services and adjacent network conductors
What UK Law Actually Says
Direct quotes from the named regulations, with plain-English explanations of what each one means in practice.
Regulation 4(1), Work at Height Regulations 2005
“Every employer shall ensure that work at height is properly planned, appropriately supervised and carried out in a manner which is so far as is reasonably practicable safe.”
WAHR 2005 Reg 4 is the foundation regulation for every roofing RAMS. 'Properly planned' is what the documented method statement evidences; 'appropriately supervised' is what your named site supervisor satisfies. Roofing without both is a Reg 4 breach in the eyes of HSE.
Read the source on legislation.gov.uk →Regulation 6(3), Work at Height Regulations 2005
“Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury.”
Roofing RAMS must follow the WAH hierarchy: avoid working at height where possible → prevent the fall (collective measures like edge protection) → minimise fall consequences (PFAS as last resort). Reg 6(3) is why a RAMS that jumps straight to harnesses without considering scaffolding first usually gets rejected.
Read the source on legislation.gov.uk →The Numbers Behind the Risk
Why this matters — the most recent published figures from the Health and Safety Executive and ONS.
17 fall-from-height deaths
Construction workers killed by falls from height in 2023/24 — the largest single cause of construction fatalities. Roofing accounts for a disproportionate share given the sector's relative size.
Source: HSE — Construction sector statistics 2023/24 →£1.4m fine, 2023
Sentence handed to a roofing contractor following a fatal fall from a fragile roof — the absence of an adequate, site-specific RAMS was a key aggravating factor in sentencing.
Source: HSE — Recent prosecutions →Worked Example: RAMS for a Two-Day Pitched Slate Re-Roof
A roofing contractor wins a complete re-slating job on a 1930s semi-detached property — pitched slate roof, 8m × 6m per slope, two-day timeline. The principal contractor for the wider extension build requires a RAMS before scaffold goes up.
The structured builder pre-populates the dominant hazards: falls from height (primary, addressed by independent scaffold with toe boards and brick guards), falling materials onto the rear garden (secondary, addressed with debris netting and rear-garden exclusion zone), manual handling of slate bundles up to 25kg per pack, and weather (wind >23mph or rain stops work). Each hazard is paired with controls following the WAH hierarchy: scaffolding is the engineered control, harness as backup only for the verge/ridge work where scaffold can't reach.
Site-specific detail: the rear garden has a child's trampoline that must be relocated before scaffold rises; the neighbouring property has a conservatory directly below the eaves on one side, requiring extra debris protection. Operatives are CISRS-trained for the scaffold inspection and CSCS-carded for the slating. A daily handover with the homeowner is referenced in the method statement. Total time to produce: 7 minutes. Submitted Tuesday afternoon, accepted Wednesday morning, scaffold up Thursday.
Common Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
1. Specifying a harness/lanyard system without a documented anchor strategy
Why it fails: A harness is only as good as what it's clipped to. RAMS that say 'harness used at all times' without naming the anchor points, the rated load, and the inspection record fail the WAH Reg 7 'suitable equipment' test.
Fix: Name the anchor type (eyebolt, mansafe rail, dead-weight system), the inspection date, and the rescue plan. No anchor strategy = no harness.
2. Treating fragile-roof checks as a tick-box
Why it fails: Fibre-cement and old asbestos-cement roofs cause more roofing deaths than slate or tile. A RAMS that doesn't explicitly assess fragility and propose crawling boards or netting is high-risk.
Fix: Always include a documented fragility assessment, even if the conclusion is 'not fragile'. The reasoning has to be visible.
3. No public-protection plan for street-fronting roofs
Why it fails: Falling materials onto pavements or parked cars is one of the commonest causes of third-party injury claims in roofing. Generic RAMS routinely omit pedestrian management.
Fix: Add a pedestrian-protection section: signage, exclusion zones, banksman, and a permit-to-occupy footpath if the works overhang a public way.
Key Features
- HSG33-aligned hazard presets for pitched, flat, profiled and fragile roofs
- WAH 2005 hierarchy prompts (avoid / prevent / minimise)
- Hot works permit and BS 9999 / JCoP fire watch templates
- Weather working windows with wind shut-down thresholds
- Rescue from height plan with suspension trauma timeframes
- Asbestos cement sheet handling prompts (HSG264)
- Download to PDF for principal contractor sign-off
Example Structure (UK Standard)
- Project details and roof construction type
- Fragility assessment per HSG33 (with photographs where possible)
- Access strategy aligned to WAH 2005 hierarchy
- Edge protection specification (BS EN 13374 Class A/B/C)
- Hot works permit and fire watch plan (BS 9999 / JCoP)
- Weather working window — wind, rain, ice, lightning
- Material delivery, hoisting and storage on roof
- Rescue from height plan with response timing
- Hazard register with risk ratings (5×5)
- PPE schedule (Class 0 boots, harness with shock pack, hi-vis)
- Emergency procedures and welfare arrangements
- Competence: CSCS, IPAF, OFTEC/MCS where relevant
Common Questions Before Getting Started
Will this take long?
Under 5 minutes. Select your trade, pick hazards, download.
Is it complicated?
No training needed. The guided builder walks you through every step.
Do I need experience?
If you know what work you're doing, you can use Riskora.
Is it free to try?
Yes. The Free plan needs no card — generate, review and download one free PDF. Upgrade any time for branding, DOCX, sign-off and higher limits.
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All documents generated by Riskora should be reviewed by a competent person before use on site. Riskora provides structured templates — professional judgement is always required.
What your RAMS actually contains
Riskora builds a structured, client-facing document — not a generic AI paragraph. Every section is shaped around your job, your site and your team.
Hazards
Task-specific hazards for the job, captured row by row — not a generic list pulled from an old RAMS.
Controls
Control measures mapped to each hazard with residual risk scoring after controls are applied.
PPE
PPE requirements tied to the activity and site, ready to brief to the team.
Method steps
Step-by-step method statement structured around how the work is actually sequenced on site.
Emergency arrangements
First aid, rescue plan, emergency contacts and site-specific escalation routes.
COSHH prompts
Substance prompts when the work involves chemicals, dusts, fumes or sealants — flagged early, not missed at review.
Sign-off
Operative sign-off captured against the document — names, dates and acknowledgement of the brief.
Version history
Every change tracked so you can show what was issued, when, and which version the team signed.
Approval status
Clear approval state on every document — draft, in review, approved, issued — visible across the team.
Audit trail
Who created it, who reviewed it, who signed it. A complete trail you can hand to a principal contractor or auditor.
From copied-and-pasted to site-specific
The reason RAMS get rejected is rarely the format — it's that the document is obviously generic. Riskora rebuilds it around this job, this site and this task.
Generic template copied from an old job.
- • Hazards and controls that don't match this site or task.
- • Method steps written for a different sequence of work.
- • No emergency arrangements specific to the location.
- • Client flags it as generic and asks for a rewrite.
Site-specific document structured around this job, site and task.
- • Hazards captured from the actual scope you pasted in.
- • Method steps sequenced for how the work runs on site.
- • Emergency arrangements and rescue plan tied to the location.
- • Approved internally, briefed to the team, signed off and stored.
From job details to signed-off document
A four-step workflow used by contractors, consultants and safety teams to turn informal job details into client-ready safety paperwork.
- 1Paste job details
Drop in a client email, a WhatsApp from the site manager, a scope of works or a tender note. Anything that describes the job.
- 2Riskora structures the document
Riskora turns your brief into hazards, controls, method steps, PPE, emergency arrangements and COSHH prompts.
- 3Review, edit and download
You stay in control of every section. Tweak anything, then download a clean PDF or share a link.
- 4Brief the team and record sign-off
Brief operatives, capture their sign-off and keep a full audit trail of who signed which version.
Built by people who've written this paperwork on real sites
Riskora is built by a founder with hands-on site and document experience — designed for contractors, consultants and safety teams who need to issue, brief and prove safety paperwork without losing a day to admin.
- Built for contractors, consultants and teams
Solo trades, principal contractors and in-house safety teams all run on the same workflow. - Supports multiple countries
UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, US and Canada — wording and document types match the local standard. - Not just documents
Sign-off, approvals, version history and an audit trail — the management workflow around the paperwork.
Frequently Asked Questions
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References & Further Reading
Primary UK sources covering the legal and practical framework behind RAMS, risk assessments and method statements.
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Final RAMS must be reviewed and approved by a competent person before use.
Riskora is an assistive document preparation tool. All documents generated must be reviewed, verified, and approved by a competent person before use on site. Riskora does not replace professional safety judgment, and no output should be treated as a legal compliance guarantee.