Construction compliance glossary
79 terms a UK contractor meets on a tender, at an induction or in an audit, each explained as it works on a real site: what it means, where it comes from in law, where it shows up in the paperwork, and the questions people ask. Written by people who fill the forms in, not by a marketing team.
Every term links to the library pages, free templates and tools behind it.
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A
- Accident bookThe record of every workplace injury, however minor, required under social security law and kept for three years, with entries stored so that personal details are protected.
- Asbestos register · Asbestos management survey and registerThe record of where asbestos-containing materials are, or are presumed to be, in a building, which contractors must be shown before disturbing the fabric.
B
- Banksman and slinger-signallerThe trained people who direct plant movements (banksman or vehicle marshal) and attach and signal loads for lifting operations (slinger-signaller).
- BS EN 1090 · Execution of steel structures and aluminium structuresThe European standard for fabricated structural steelwork and aluminium; Part 1 governs conformity assessment and factory production control for UKCA and CE marking, Part 2 the technical requirements for steel by execution class.
- Building Safety Act 2022 · The golden thread, dutyholders and the Building Safety RegulatorThe post-Grenfell legislation creating the Building Safety Regulator, a new dutyholder regime under the Building Regulations, gateways and the golden thread for higher-risk buildings, and extended liability for defects.
C
- CDM 2015 · Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015The regulations that place health and safety duties on everyone involved in a construction project (client, principal designer, designers, principal contractor, contractors, workers) from concept to handover.
- CHAS · Contractors Health and Safety Assessment SchemeThe longest-established SSIP scheme, originally created by local authorities, assessing contractors' health and safety management for pre-qualification; recognised across SSIP.
- Competence · Skills, knowledge, experience and trainingThe combination of training, skills, experience and knowledge, and the ability to apply them, that CDM 2015 requires of everyone appointed to construction work, checked by the person appointing them.
- Confined spaceAn enclosed or substantially enclosed place where there is a reasonably foreseeable specified risk: lack of oxygen, toxic gas, fire, flooding or free-flowing solids.
- Construction phase plan · CPPThe document required by CDM 2015 for every project before work starts, setting out how health and safety will be managed during the construction phase, proportionate to the risk.
- ConstructionlineA pre-qualification register used by public and private sector buyers, with tiered membership (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum) covering SSIP health and safety and the wider Common Assessment Standard.
- COSHH · Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002The regulations requiring employers to assess and control exposure to hazardous substances: dusts, fumes, chemicals, biological agents, and anything with a hazard label.
- CPCS and NPORS · Construction Plant Competence Scheme and National Plant Operators Registration SchemeThe two main card schemes evidencing plant operator training and competence, by machine category, recognised across the industry and checked before anyone operates plant on site.
- CSCS card · Construction Skills Certification SchemeThe card scheme showing that a construction worker has the qualification for their occupation and has passed the CITB health, safety and environment test; required for site access by most principal contractors.
D
- Dayworks · Daywork sheetsWork valued on the basis of the actual time, materials and plant used, recorded daily on signed sheets, used where a variation cannot sensibly be priced by measurement.
- Dynamic risk assessmentThe continuous assessment a competent person makes as conditions change during a task, deciding whether the planned controls still hold and stopping if they do not; a supplement to the written assessment, not a replacement.
E
- Edge protection · Guardrails, toe boards and the collective fall prevention hierarchyCollective fall prevention at an open edge: a guardrail at least 950 mm high, an intermediate rail or infill leaving no gap over 470 mm, and a toe board, preferred over any individual protection.
- Electrical isolation · Safe isolation, lock-offThe procedure for making electrical equipment dead before work: identify, isolate, lock off, prove dead with a tested voltage indicator, and control the key.
- ExcavationAny dug hole, trench or pit, controlled under CDM against collapse, falls, striking services, water and contamination, and inspected at the start of every shift.
- Exclusion zoneA marked and enforced area around a hazard (a lift, an excavator's slew, a demolition, overhead work, a live service) that nobody enters while the hazard is present, other than those the method statement names.
- Execution class · EXC1 to EXC4The classification in BS EN 1090-2 that sets how rigorously a steel structure must be fabricated and inspected, from EXC1 (low consequence) to EXC4 (extreme), specified by the designer.
F
- F10 notificationThe notice a client must give the HSE before the construction phase of a project expected to last more than 30 working days with more than 20 workers at once, or to exceed 500 person-days.
- Face fit testingThe test showing that a specific tight-fitting respirator (disposable or half mask) seals to a specific person's face, required before it is relied on as a control and repeated when the face or the mask changes.
- Factory production control · FPCThe documented, permanent internal control of production that a manufacturer must operate to UKCA or CE mark a construction product, certified by a notified body for structural steel under BS EN 1090-1.
- Fire risk assessmentThe assessment required under the Fire Safety Order of fire hazards, the people at risk, and the measures to prevent fire and protect people, applying to construction sites as to any other workplace.
- First-aid needs assessmentThe assessment every employer must make of what first-aid equipment, facilities and trained people the workplace needs, based on its hazards, size, location and working patterns.
- Fragile roof · Fragile surfacesA roof or roof element (asbestos cement, fibre cement, glass, rooflights, corroded metal, wood wool) that will not bear a person's weight, requiring specific controls under the Work at Height Regulations before anyone goes near it.
G
H
- Handover and O&M manual · Operation and maintenance manual, building manualThe documentation handed to the client at completion: how the building and its systems work and are maintained, as-built drawings, certificates, warranties and the health and safety file information.
- HAVS · Hand-arm vibration syndromePermanent nerve, blood vessel and joint damage in the hands and arms caused by regular use of vibrating tools, controlled under the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations.
- Health and safety fileThe record prepared under CDM 2015 for any project with more than one contractor, containing the information needed for the health and safety of future construction, maintenance, cleaning and demolition work on the structure.
- Health surveillanceThe ongoing health checks required where workers are exposed to specific hazards (vibration, noise, silica and other dusts, sensitisers, asbestos) to detect early signs of harm and check that controls are working.
- Hierarchy of control · ERICPD: eliminate, reduce, isolate, control, PPE, disciplineThe order in which controls are considered: eliminate the hazard, reduce it, isolate people from it, control it with procedures, protect the individual with PPE, and enforce with supervision, in that order and not the reverse.
- Hold pointA defined stage in the work beyond which nothing proceeds until a specified inspection has been passed and signed off by the named party.
- Hot worksAny work producing heat, sparks or flame, including welding, cutting, grinding and torch-applied roofing, controlled by a permit and a fire watch.
I
- Inspection and test plan · ITPThe schedule agreed before work starts of every inspection and test to be carried out on a package, who does it, what it is checked against, and which are hold or witness points.
- ISO 9001 · Quality management systemsThe international standard for a quality management system: understanding customer requirements, controlling processes, measuring outcomes, handling nonconformance and improving; the most widely certified standard in construction.
- ISO 14001 · Environmental management systemsThe international standard for an environmental management system: identifying environmental aspects and impacts, legal compliance, objectives, operational control and improvement.
- ISO 45001 · Occupational health and safety management systemsThe international standard for an occupational health and safety management system, certified by an accredited body, replacing OHSAS 18001; often required by larger clients and frameworks.
L
- Lifting plan · Lift plan, method statement for lifting operationsThe written plan for a lifting operation, prepared by a competent person (the appointed person for cranes), covering the load, the equipment, the ground, the exclusion zone and the sequence.
- Live services · Underground and overhead servicesElectricity, gas, water, telecoms and drainage in the ground or overhead, which must be located, marked and treated as live before any excavation or work near them.
- LOLER · Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998The regulations governing lifting equipment and lifting operations: strength and stability, marking, planning by a competent person, and periodic thorough examination.
M
- Method statement · Safe system of work statementThe step-by-step description of how a task will be done: sequence, people, plant, access, controls and what happens if something changes.
- MEWP · Mobile elevating work platformA machine that lifts people to work at height on a platform: scissor lifts, boom lifts and cherry pickers, operated by IPAF-trained people under LOLER, PUWER and the Work at Height Regulations.
N
- NCR · Non-conformance reportThe record raised when work, materials or a process do not meet the specification, drawing or standard, with the disposition (rework, repair, accept as is, reject) and the close-out.
- Near missAn unplanned event that did not cause injury or damage but could have; recorded and investigated because it is the warning before the accident.
- Noise at work · Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005The regulations setting daily noise exposure action values at 80 and 85 dB(A) and a limit at 87 dB(A), with duties to assess, control, provide hearing protection and health surveillance.
P
- Permit to workA formal, time-limited authorisation for high-risk work, confirming that named precautions are in place before it starts and closed out when it ends.
- Plant pre-use check · Daily plant inspection, operator's daily checkThe operator's recorded check of a machine at the start of every shift: fluids, guards, controls, tyres or tracks, lights, damage, before it does any work.
- Point of work risk assessment · POWRA, take 5, last-minute risk assessmentA short recorded check by the gang at the work location, immediately before starting, that the conditions match the RAMS and the controls are in place, with authority to stop if they are not.
- Practical completionThe point at which the works are complete for their intended use apart from minor items, certified by the contract administrator, releasing half the retention and starting the defects period.
- Pre-construction information · PCIThe information the client (through the principal designer) must provide to designers and contractors about the project, the site and existing structures, so that risks can be designed out and planned for.
- Principal contractor · PCThe contractor appointed by the client under CDM 2015 to plan, manage, monitor and coordinate the construction phase where more than one contractor is involved.
- Principal designer · PDThe designer appointed by the client under CDM 2015 to plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety in the pre-construction phase and to prepare the health and safety file.
- PUWER · Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998The regulations covering all work equipment: suitability, maintenance, inspection, information and training, guarding, controls and stability.
Q
R
- RAMS · Risk Assessment and Method StatementThe two documents, usually bound as one, that say what could go wrong on a task and exactly how the work will be done to stop it.
- Rescue planThe arrangements, planned before the work starts, for recovering a person from a confined space, from a harness after a fall, or from a stranded MEWP, without relying on the emergency services arriving in time.
- Respirable crystalline silica · RCSThe fine dust released when concrete, stone, brick, mortar and tile are cut, drilled or ground, which causes silicosis and lung cancer and is strictly limited under COSHH.
- Responsible Welding Coordinator · RWCThe named person under BS EN ISO 14731 responsible for a fabricator's welding quality: procedures, welder qualifications, consumables, inspection and nonconformance, with competence matched to the execution class.
- RIDDOR · Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013The regulations requiring employers to report specified workplace injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences to the HSE, within set timescales, and to keep records.
- Risk assessmentA recorded look at what could cause harm in a task, how badly and how likely, and the controls that reduce the risk to an acceptable level.
S
- Safe system of work · SSoWThe formal, considered procedure resulting from a systematic examination of a task, identifying the hazards and defining the safe method of doing it; the method statement is the written form.
- Safety audit · Site safety inspection, safety walkA structured, scored check of a site or an activity against a checklist, with fails photographed and turned into corrective actions with owners and dates.
- Scaffold inspectionThe inspection of a scaffold by a competent person before first use, every seven days, and after alteration, damage or weather, recorded and kept on site.
- Site diaryThe daily record of what happened on site: weather, labour and plant on site, progress, deliveries, visitors, instructions received, delays and incidents.
- Site inductionThe briefing every person receives before first working on a site: the site rules, hazards, emergency arrangements, welfare and who is in charge.
- Snagging · Defects list, punch listThe inspection of finished work before handover to identify and record every defect, minor or otherwise, for correction, each pinned to a location, photographed and tracked to close-out.
- SSIP · Safety Schemes in ProcurementThe umbrella body whose member schemes (CHAS, SafeContractor, SMAS, Constructionline, Achilles and others) assess contractors' health and safety arrangements to one common standard, with mutual recognition.
T
- Temporary worksStructures needed during construction but not part of the finished building: formwork, falsework, excavation support, propping, scaffolds, hoardings and crane bases, managed under BS 5975 with a temporary works coordinator.
- Thorough examinationThe periodic detailed examination of lifting equipment by a competent person under LOLER, with a written report, at six- or twelve-month intervals or to a written scheme.
- Toolbox talkA short, recorded safety briefing to a work gang on one topic, usually at the start of a shift, with attendance signed.
- Traffic management planThe plan for keeping vehicles and pedestrians apart on and around a site: routes, one-way systems, crossing points, speed limits, reversing controls, signage and the interface with the public highway.
U
W
- Weekly site packThe bundle of records a site produces every week: the site diary, inspections, toolbox talks, permits, plant checks, incidents and near misses, progress and labour, assembled for the client, the principal contractor or the file.
- Welding procedure · WPS and WPQRThe Welding Procedure Specification tells the welder exactly how to make a weld; the Welding Procedure Qualification Record proves that procedure was tested and works.
- Welfare facilitiesThe toilets, washing facilities, drinking water, changing rooms and rest areas that CDM 2015 Schedule 2 requires on every construction site from the first day, provided by the principal contractor.
- Working at heightAny work where a person could fall a distance liable to cause injury, controlled by avoiding it, preventing falls, then minimising the consequences, in that order.
By topic
Planning the work
Hazards and controls
Plant and lifting
Quality and handover
Accreditation and standards
Records and reporting
People and competence
The paperwork behind every term, on a phone
RAMS, permits, QA inspections, safety audits, plant checks, site diary, incidents: signed by the crew on their phones, PDF at the end. 14 days free, no card.
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