Guide
RAMS for electricians
RAMS are the documents that get you on site: the risk assessment says what could go wrong and how you prevent it, the method statement says how the job is done safely, step by step. Main contractors will not let you start without them, and assessors read them as the proof your safe systems exist.
The two halves and what each does
The risk assessment is analytical: hazards, who could be harmed, controls, residual risk. The method statement is procedural: site and task details, the team and their competence, the equipment, the sequence of work in order, emergency arrangements and the sign-off sheet your operatives sign to confirm they have read it. Weak RAMS usually fail by merging the two into a vague hybrid that does neither job.
The method statements an electrical contractor needs
Build one per distinct activity, not one per job. A working set for most electrical firms: safe isolation and dead working (the foundation document), domestic installation and rewires, commercial installation on CDM sites, inspection and testing including the controlled live-work element of an EICR, and working at height for containment runs. A specific job then takes the relevant method statement and gets a site-specific front sheet, rather than a rewrite.
What reviewers look for
- A real sequence. Numbered steps a competent electrician would recognise, including the proving-dead sequence in full, not "isolate safely".
- Named competence. Who is doing the work and the qualifications and cards that make them competent to do it.
- Consistency with the risk assessment. Every control promised in one appears in the other.
- Site specificity. Address, dates, supervision and emergency arrangements completed per job, which is what the front sheet is for.
- Sign-off. A briefing record showing the people doing the work have read the document that governs it.
Buying vs writing
Writing a good RAMS set from scratch is days of work, and generic bought templates recreate the referral problem they were meant to solve. The electrician CHAS pack contains five electrical method statements with the trade substance complete and amber prompts on every line that must describe your business: your people, your kit, your sites.
For electrical contractors
Electrician CHAS pack · £95
Policy, five electrical RAMS, COSHH assessments, training matrix and registers, each mapped to what the assessor checks.
Common questions
What does RAMS stand for?
Risk Assessment and Method Statement: the risk assessment identifies hazards and controls, and the method statement sets out the step-by-step safe sequence of work. Together they are the standard safety paperwork requested from contractors.
When does an electrician need RAMS?
Whenever a main contractor, client or site requires them before work starts, which for commercial work is almost always, and whenever accreditation schemes assess your safe systems of work.