On a construction site RAMS is the price of admission. The principal contractor has a duty under CDM 2015 to plan, manage and monitor the construction phase and to ensure it is carried out without risks to health or safety, and the way they discharge that for a subcontractor is by reading your risk assessment and method statement before you arrive. Getting it accepted first time is a commercial skill, not just a safety one.
What RAMS means to a principal contractor
Not a certificate. Evidence that you understand this job on this site, that your people are competent to do it, and that your method will not create a hazard for the other trades working around you. The last of those is the part subcontractors underestimate: a method that is safe in isolation and drops debris onto another trade's work area will be rejected on that ground alone.
What a construction pack contains
Site and client details, the scope, the programme dates, the supervisor and the operatives with their cards and training, the sequence, the plant, the access and lifting arrangements, the temporary works if any, the risk assessment with residual risk after controls, COSHH assessments for substances brought on site, waste and housekeeping, emergency and rescue arrangements, and the briefing sign-off.
Why generic packs get sent back
Because the reviewer can tell. Wrong site name, an access method the site does not have, a hazard that is obviously present and not mentioned, or a document dated two years ago. The fix is not longer documents; it is a real trade template plus a short site-specific section written by somebody who looked at the site.
How it fits with the construction phase plan
The principal contractor holds the construction phase plan for the whole project. Your RAMS is the trade-level detail that sits underneath it and has to be consistent with it. If the plan says all deliveries through the east gate and your method statement says otherwise, one of you is going to have to change, and it is easier to find that out before the lorry arrives.
Questions people ask about rams construction
What does RAMS mean in construction?
Risk assessment and method statement: the pair of documents a contractor submits before starting work, showing what could go wrong and how the job will actually be done.
Who checks the RAMS on site?
Usually the principal contractor's site manager or health and safety adviser, as part of the duty to plan, manage and monitor the construction phase under CDM 2015.
Do small domestic jobs need RAMS?
The legal duty to assess risk applies whatever the size of the job. Whether anybody asks you for a document depends on the client, and on a domestic project the CDM client duties usually pass to the contractor.