Trades / Electrical
Risk assessment and method statement for electrical work
An electrical RAMS is judged on one thing first: how you prove dead before you touch it. Everything else — the testing, the certificate, the working at height for the lighting — follows from that.
£29 per document. Written for your job in two to three minutes, as an editable Word file and a PDF. Free preview first.
What a electrical RAMS has to cover
Not every job needs all of these, and the document only carries what your job actually involves. These are the ones that come up for electricians.
- Safe isolation, lock-off and proving dead with an approved voltage indicator
- Live working, and the narrow circumstances in which it is justified at all
- Existing installations of unknown condition, and what happens when a circuit is not what the drawing says
- Working at height for lighting, containment and loft work
- Asbestos in ceiling voids, artex and old boards when chasing or drilling
- Dust and silica from chasing walls, and the on-tool extraction that controls it
- Other trades and occupants in the building while circuits are part-isolated
Jobs you can pick
Ten common electrical work jobs, or describe your own in a sentence or two. Either way the document is written around what you describe, including the site, who else is about and how long it takes.
- Full house rewire
- Replace a consumer unit (fuse board)
- Add sockets, lights or switches
- Fit an EV charger
- Electrical testing and inspection (EICR)
- Fit an electric shower or cooker circuit
- Outdoor lighting and garden power
- Solar panels (PV) and battery
- LED lighting upgrade in a shop or office
- Fire alarm or emergency lighting
- Something else — describe it yourself
The legislation cited for electrical work
This is the complete list your document may cite — 13 entries, kept by hand for electricians. The system cannot cite anything outside it, and a document that tries is rejected and written again. Each one only appears in your RAMS if it applies to the job you describe.
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
- General duties on employers and the self-employed to protect workers and anyone else affected by the work (ss.2–3), and on workers to take reasonable care (s.7).
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
- Requires a suitable and sufficient risk assessment before work starts (reg 3) and operatives given adequate information and training — this RAMS records the significant findings.
- Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992
- PPE must be suitable for the risk, correctly fitted, maintained and provided free of charge (including to limb (b) workers since the 2022 amendment), and used as the last line of defence.
- Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013
- Deaths, specified injuries, over-seven-day injuries, occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences arising from the work must be reported to HSE.
- Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981
- Adequate first-aid equipment and a trained first-aider or appointed person must be available for the duration of the work.
- Electricity at Work Regulations 1989
- Work dead wherever possible: safe isolation, lock-off and proving dead before work (regs 12–13); live work only where the reg 14 conditions are met, by competent people (reg 16).
- BS 7671:2018 Requirements for Electrical Installations (IET Wiring Regulations), as amended
- Non-statutory British Standard: installing, inspecting and testing to BS 7671, with the correct certificate (EIC, MEIWC or EICR), is the accepted way to show compliance with EAWR and Part P.
- Building Regulations 2010
- Part P applies to electrical installation work in dwellings: it must be designed and installed to protect people from fire and electric shock (England & Wales).
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
- Electrical installation is construction work: it must be planned, managed and monitored, with isolations and permits coordinated with others working on site.
- Work at Height Regulations 2005
- Ceiling, loft and high-level work: ladders and stepladders only for short-duration, low-risk tasks where a podium or tower isn't justified (Schedule 6).
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
- SDS drills, wall chasers and hand tools must be suitable, maintained and used by trained operatives, with site power tools at 110 V or battery.
- Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012
- Drilling or chasing pre-2000 buildings can disturb asbestos (textured coatings, insulating board, flash guards in old fuse boards) — check the asbestos survey first (reg 5).
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002
- Chasing and drilling masonry produces respirable crystalline silica: on-tool extraction and suitable RPE are needed.
Why a fixed list instead of asking the model
Ask a language model which regulations apply to electrical work and you get a confident list, some of it right and some of it regulations that were replaced, renumbered, or never existed. On a document that reaches a principal contractor, a wrong citation is worse than no citation — it is the first thing a competent reviewer spots.
So the list above is given to the system as the only thing it may cite, and every document is checked against it afterwards.
Other trades
Your electrical work RAMS
Pick the job, describe the site, read the free preview. £29 only if you want the rest.
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