Construction health and safety file

What the law asks for

The Construction Regulations, 2014 (made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act) put the duty on the contractor, not on a consultant:

• Open and keep a file on site. Regulation 7(1)(b) requires the principal contractor to open and keep on site a health and safety file holding all the documentation the Act and the Regulations require. Regulation 7(2)(b) puts the same duty on every other contractor on the site.
• Show it on request. The file must be made available to an inspector, the client, the client’s agent or the principal contractor whenever they ask.
• Hand over a consolidated file at the end. Regulation 7(1)(e) requires a consolidated file to go to the client on completion, with drawings, designs and materials used. Municipal contracts tie the close out file to the retention payment.
• Notify or get a permit first. Regulation 4 requires a notification on Annexure 2 to the provincial director at least seven days before work that involves excavation, working at height, demolition or explosives, and for any single storey house built for the person who will live in it. Regulation 3 requires a construction work permit, applied for thirty days ahead, where the work will run over 180 days, involve more than 1 800 person days, or the contract is worth R13 million or more or sits at CIDB grade 6 or above.
• Penalties are personal. Regulation 33 makes a breach of regulations 3 to 10 an offence carrying a fine or up to twelve months imprisonment, with a daily penalty while the breach continues.

What goes into the file

Built from the Regulations and from the health and safety specifications that municipalities and state clients attach to their tenders, so what you hand in matches what the client’s own auditor is told to look for.

• Index and legal register. A contents page keyed to the regulation each document answers, and the Act and Regulations listed for the site.
• Policies and agreements. Health and safety policy, PPE policy, the section 37(2) mandatary agreement with the client, and the client’s appointment of the contractor under regulation 5(1)(k).
• Notification or permit. Annexure 2 notification completed for the site, or the Annexure 1 permit application where the thresholds are met.
• The health and safety plan. Site specific, written against the client’s specification where one exists, as regulation 7(1)(a) requires.
• Legal appointments. Letters for the construction manager (regulation 8(1)), construction supervisor (8(7)), risk assessor (9), fall protection plan developer (10), health and safety officer where the site needs one (8(5)), and the first aider, fire and emergency, scaffolding, excavation and ladder appointments the work calls for.
• Risk assessments and safe work procedures. The baseline and task risk assessments for your scope of work on a documented method, with the monitoring and review plan regulation 9 demands, and a safe work procedure for each hazardous task.
• Fall protection plan. The regulation 10 plan with its risk assessment, medical fitness process, training programme, equipment inspection procedure and rescue plan.
• Medical fitness and induction. The Annexure 3 medical certificate of fitness template for every worker and the induction record regulation 7(7) requires on site.
• Incident procedure. The reporting procedure with the WCL 2 and Annexure 1 forms ready for use.
• Registers. Toolbox talks, PPE issue, scaffold, ladder, portable tools, hand tools, vehicles, visitors, attendance, health and safety representative reports, committee minutes and audit reports.
• Proof of standing. A place for your Compensation Fund letter of good standing, which regulation 5(1)(j) requires the client to check before you start.

What is included

• A questionnaire that gets the site, the scope of work, your people and your client’s specification out of your head and onto paper in twenty minutes
• The complete file compiled for your site: policies, plan, appointments, risk assessments, procedures, fall protection plan, registers and forms, every document carrying your company name and the site name
• An index keyed to the regulation each document satisfies, so an auditor finds what they ask for
• The Annexure 2 notification completed for signature, or the Annexure 1 permit application where your project crosses the thresholds
• A written note on which appointments your site needs, and which of them must be a person registered with the professional council
• Delivered as a print ready PDF and an editable Word pack, so the file stays current as the site changes
• Three business days from your completed questionnaire, sooner if the site starts earlier and you tell us when you order

What we do not do

Said plainly, because a file that pretends to be more than it is fails at the gate.

• We do not sign as a registered professional. Where a client’s specification or regulation 8(5) requires a construction health and safety officer, that person must be registered with the South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions. The file carries the appointment letter; you engage the officer.
• We do not attend site. No inductions, toolbox talks, inspections or audits. The registers are set up for your supervisor to run.
• We do not do medicals. The Annexure 3 certificate is completed by an occupational health practitioner.
• We do not write the client’s specification. That is the client’s regulation 5 duty. If your client has not issued one we build the plan on a baseline assessment of your scope and say so in the file.

How ordering works

1. Order online with the button below and pay securely by card or instant EFT (PayFast), or wait for the EFT invoice.
2. Complete the questionnaire in your client portal: the site, the client, the scope of work, start date, who is on site and in which roles, and upload the client’s health and safety specification if you have one.
3. We compile the file, index it and send it to you within three business days as a PDF and a Word pack, with a short list of what to sign and who must sign it.
4. You sign the appointments, place the file on site and hand the consolidated copy to the client at the end. Need a second site? R690, and we reuse your company documents.

Site starts this week? Ask us first and you get a written answer within one business day on whether we can meet the date.

What we will need from you

• Your company registration number and the name exactly as it appears on your Compensation Fund letter of good standing.
• The site. Address, the client’s name, the contract or tender number, the start date and the expected duration.
• The scope of work in plain words: what you are building or doing, how high, whether there is excavation, demolition or scaffolding.
• Your people on site. Names and roles for the construction manager, supervisor and anyone being appointed, with their training certificates where they exist.
• The client’s health and safety specification, if the client issued one. It usually sits in the tender pack.
• Your letter of good standing from the Compensation Fund. Not got one? See COIDA registration or the letter of good standing service, and we hold the file open for it.

Frequently asked questions

Usually ordered with it

• Letter of good standing, R690. The client must confirm you are in good standing with the Compensation Fund before you start, and the file has a page waiting for it.
• CIDB registration, R1 490. Public construction work is awarded by grade and class of works.
• NHBRC registration, R1 490. Any work on a new home needs the builder enrolled.
• Construction startup pack, R4 990. The registrations a new contractor needs, in the order the authorities want them.