Buyer's guide

How to fill out your CHAS document pack

A downloaded pack does not pass CHAS on its own. What passes is a pack that has been made to describe your business, completed in full, signed and internally consistent. Here is exactly how to do that, in about half an evening.

Why completion matters more than the documents

The single most common reason a CHAS application is referred is documents that still look like templates. Assessors read a great many packs and they can tell at a glance when a policy has been downloaded and left generic. Our pack is written for electrical contractors and flags every field you need to personalise, but the personalising is yours to do. This guide walks through it.

Step 1: Replace your details everywhere

Every highlighted field and every [YOUR COMPANY NAME] marker must be completed. The fastest way is to open each document in Word and use Find & Replace to swap the company name in one pass, then work through the remaining highlighted fields by eye. Nothing highlighted should remain when you finish.

Step 2: Complete every amber prompt

Throughout the pack you will see amber dashed boxes. Each one tells you what to decide or add for that specific document: which activities apply to you, what qualification your competent adviser holds, whether you use subcontractors, and so on. These are the judgement calls only you can make. None may be left unactioned.

Step 3: Make the pack describe your business

Delete any activity, tool or substance the pack lists that you do not actually work with, and add anything you do that is not there. If the pack describes commercial installation work and you only do domestic, remove the commercial content. A pack that claims work you do not do is as much a referral risk as one that misses work you do. The pack should read as a description of your real business on the day you submit it.

Step 4: Fill the records with real data

The training and competence matrix and the registers are not decoration: assessors sample them. Enter your real qualification and certificate numbers, the real dates, and your actual test instruments in the equipment register. Gather the matching certificates so you can upload them alongside the pack. If a refresher is overdue, book it before you apply.

Step 5: Sign, date and cross-check

Sign and date the health and safety policy: it must be signed by the owner or most senior person and dated within the last twelve months, or it is an automatic referral. Sign each RAMS. Then read the whole pack through once. The policy, the RAMS, the COSHH assessments and the statements must all describe the same business, with no contradictions between them. A policy that names activities the RAMS do not cover, or the reverse, is the kind of inconsistency an assessor picks up.

What to have ready to upload

Alongside the completed pack, the assessor will expect your training certificates and your current employers' liability and public liability insurance certificates. Insurance is not part of the pack, since it comes from your broker, but the scheme asks for it, so have the certificates scanned and ready.

If something does not apply to you

Some documents will not apply to every electrician. If you never use subcontractors, or you are a sole trader with no employees to consult, do not simply delete the document. State on it that it does not apply and why. Assessors accept a clear "not applicable" with a reason; what they query is a silent gap where they expected to see something.