RAMS Software
Create professional Risk Assessment and Method Statement documents in one place. Safety Mate® AI drafts the assessment and method statement in minutes, then version control, workforce distribution and client sign-off keep every RAMS current, approved and ready for the principal contractor.
The basics
RAMS stands for Risk Assessment Method Statement. It is a single document that combines a risk assessment - identifying the hazards in a task and the control measures needed to manage them - with a step-by-step method statement describing how the work will be carried out safely. RAMS are most commonly used in UK construction, where principal contractors typically require an approved RAMS before work starts on site.
When are RAMS required? Every employer must assess the risks of their work under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and those with five or more employees must record the significant findings - the HSE's guidance on managing risks explains what a suitable and sufficient assessment looks like. Method statements are not named in legislation, but for higher-risk activities such as work at height, demolition, hot works, lifting operations or confined space entry, they are the accepted way of showing that the work has been properly planned. In practice, most principal contractors and many clients make an approved RAMS a condition of site access, so for contractors the distinction between "legally required" and "commercially unavoidable" rarely matters.
What does a good RAMS contain? A useful RAMS is specific to the task and the site, not a recycled template. The risk assessment section identifies the significant hazards, who might be harmed and how, and the control measures that reduce the risk to an acceptable level. The method statement section then sets out the sequence of work step by step, together with the plant and equipment to be used, PPE requirements, the competencies and training of those carrying out the work, emergency arrangements and named responsible persons. Reviewers can spot a generic, copied RAMS quickly - and rejected RAMS mean delayed start dates.
RAMS and CDM 2015. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 require construction work to be planned, managed and monitored so that it can be carried out without risk to health or safety. Contractors must plan their own work, and principal contractors must coordinate safety across the whole project. RAMS are the working documents that make those duties visible: they feed into the construction phase plan, give the principal contractor evidence that each package of work has been thought through, and give operatives clear instructions they can be briefed against before work begins.
How Safety Mate® handles RAMS
Writing RAMS in word processors means hours of formatting, lost versions and email chains chasing signatures. Safety Mate® puts the risk assessment and method statement in one connected document, drafted with AI and managed by an intelligent document control system.
Describe the task and identified hazards, and Safety Mate® AI drafts the risk assessment and method statement - ready for a competent person in your organisation to review, edit and approve before issue.
Every RAMS is version-controlled with a full history and audit trail, so the document on site is always the current, approved revision - never a stale copy from someone's inbox.
Send finished RAMS to your workforce's mobile devices, collect signatures, and share with principal contractors and clients for review and sign-off through the portal.
Built for site work
RAMS rarely exist on their own. In Safety Mate® they sit alongside dedicated project workspaces, site inductions, permits to work and contractor management in one CDM 2015-ready platform - so the documents your teams are briefed against are connected to the sites they work on.
Keep RAMS documentation, site inductions and site registers together for every project.
Share RAMS with external parties for review and sign-off through the portal - useful for contractor management and client approvals.
Every AI suggestion can be reviewed and approved by a competent person in your organisation before publication.
How it works
Tell Safety Mate® what the task involves, where it happens, who does it and the hazards you have identified.
Accept, edit or add hazards, control measures and method statement steps - you stay in control of every line.
Rate initial and residual risk on the 5x5 matrix, then route the RAMS for approval by the right person in your organisation.
Send to your workforce, collect signatures and share with the principal contractor or client through the portal.
FAQ
RAMS stands for Risk Assessment Method Statement. It is a single document that combines a risk assessment - identifying the hazards in a task and the control measures needed to manage them - with a method statement setting out, step by step, how the work will be carried out safely. RAMS are most commonly used in UK construction, where principal contractors typically require them before work starts on site.
The risk assessment element is a legal requirement. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessments, and employers with five or more employees must record the significant findings. Method statements are not named in legislation, but the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 require construction work to be planned, managed and monitored so it can be carried out safely - and a RAMS document is the accepted way of demonstrating this. In practice, principal contractors routinely make approved RAMS a condition of site access.
A good RAMS document describes the scope and location of the work, identifies the significant hazards, states who might be harmed and how, and records the control measures that reduce the risk. The method statement section then sets out the sequence of work step by step, along with the plant and equipment to be used, PPE requirements, the competencies of those doing the work, emergency arrangements and named responsible persons. It should be specific to the task and site, not a generic template with the company name changed.
A risk assessment identifies what could cause harm and records the controls that manage the risk. A RAMS goes further: it pairs the risk assessment with a method statement that explains how the work will actually be done, in what order, by whom and with what equipment. Put simply, the risk assessment covers what could go wrong and how you will control it; the method statement covers how the job will be carried out safely from start to finish.
Safety Mate® lets you create professional Risk Assessment and Method Statement documents in one place, with AI drafting to cut writing time to minutes. Risks are scored on a 5x5 matrix aligned to ISO 31000, every document is version-controlled with a full history, and finished RAMS can be distributed to your workforce, exported to PDF or shared with external parties for review and sign-off through the portal. Book a demo to see it with your own projects.
Explore the platform
AI-drafted RAMS with version control, distribution and client sign-off. Book a demo to see it with your own processes.