Managing Contractors: Who Is Responsible for Health and Safety?

Table of Contents

• Who is responsible for contractor health and safety on your site?
• Define the job and choose a competent contractor
• Information exchange, risk assessments and induction before work starts
• Supervision, monitoring and closing out the work safely
• When does CDM 2015 apply, and what are the client’s responsibilities?
• Frequently Asked Questions

Managing contractors safely starts long before work begins. A contractor arrives on your premises with insurance documents, training certificates and risk assessments. Everything appears to be in order. But who is actually managing the risks while they work on your site?

Contractor health and safety is a shared responsibility, and approving a contractor does not mean transferring all responsibility for their activities.

From maintenance engineers and cleaners to specialist subcontractors, businesses must consider how contractor activities interact with their employees, visitors and everyday operations.

Effective contractor management goes beyond checking paperwork. It requires clear responsibilities, suitable risk assessments, communication, coordination and ongoing monitoring.

This guide explains who is responsible for contractor health and safety, what health and safety legislation in Great Britain requires and how to manage contractors safely before, during and after their work.

Who is responsible for contractor health and safety on your site?

Many employers assume that once a contractor is approved, the risk belongs to the contractor. The law and good practice both see it differently. Each party has its own responsibilities, and those duties overlap at the points where the contractor’s work meets your premises, people and operations.

Shared but distinct responsibilities

Contractor health and safety on a host site is a shared responsibility, but the two sets of duties cannot be swapped. As the host, you manage the risks that come from your premises, equipment, operations and activities. You also give the contractor the site information they need and coordinate arrangements with them. The contractor’s employer assesses and controls the risks from its own work, supervises its workers and provides suitable instruction, training and protective measures.

Taking on a contractor, collecting their risk assessments or running an induction does not, on its own, meet your obligations. Managing contractors means coordinating and monitoring the work for the whole job. That said, you are not automatically responsible for every part of a contractor’s workforce or technical methods just because the work happens on your premises.

What the law in Great Britain requires

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 sets out what employers owe their employees and anyone else affected by their work. Under Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, each employer has to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks its undertaking creates. For the host, that includes risks its operations create for contractors. The contractor’s employer assesses the risks from its own work.

Regulation 11 of the same regulations applies whenever two or more employers share a workplace, whether temporarily or permanently. They have to cooperate, coordinate their health and safety measures and share information about relevant risks. HSE guidance says the site operator normally coordinates site-wide measures where it controls the workplace, but that does not move every contractor responsibility onto the operator. HSE’s guide Managing contractors (HSG159) is written mainly for small and medium-sized chemical businesses, although HSE says it is useful in other sectors too. These rules apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own separate legislation. The HSE guidance on using contractors gives a practical overview.

The opening scenario: what poor contractor management looks like

The contractor may have arrived with all the necessary paperwork, but signing in only records who is on the premises. It does not confirm what work has been authorised, where it is happening or whether other site activities could create additional risks. 

Sign-in, induction, work authorisation and active coordination each do a different job, and one cannot stand in for another. Where there is poor contractor management, gaps open up between the paperwork and what actually happens. Each working arrangement can be suitable on its own and still create risk when contractors, cleaners, maintenance staff and employees overlap without anyone coordinating them. Those gaps are where safety incidents tend to begin.

Define the job and choose a competent contractor

Choosing a contractor starts before you pick one. If you have not defined the job clearly, you cannot judge whether a contractor is suitable for it.

Scope, hazards and who could be affected

Decide what work will be done, where, when and how it might affect existing site activities and people. Setting out the scope, work area, timing and responsibilities gives both sides a shared basis for spotting risks and avoids misunderstandings later.

Think about foreseeable health and safety hazards, and who could be affected by them, at the planning stage rather than once the contractor arrives. That can include your employees, visitors, members of the public and other contractors.

Take maintenance work in an occupied warehouse. It may need coordinating with pedestrian routes, vehicle movements, machinery isolation and ongoing operations. Spotting these interactions early helps you decide what to look for in a contractor and how the work should be arranged.

Checking competence at three levels

Judge a contractor against the skills, knowledge, experience and organisational capability the particular job needs, not against general credentials. Look at three levels:

• The organisation: does it have the resources, systems and management to do the work safely?
• The person attending: do they have the skills, knowledge, training and experience for the task?
• The task and site: does the proposed method suit your equipment, surroundings, restrictions and any activities happening at the same time?

HSE’s tree-work guidance gives a useful list of things to check that works for other trades too: relevant experience, competence certificates, trade membership, accident records and evidence of suitable working methods. If the contractor uses subcontractors, satisfy yourself that someone is overseeing them. Each subcontractor assesses the risks of its own work, and the contractor manages the people under its control.

Pre-qualification questionnaires help you draw up a shortlist, but they should not be your only measure of competence. Insurance supports your choice, but it tells you nothing about the person who turns up or the method they will use. An accreditation shows a contractor’s safety standards at the time it was assessed. It does not prove how well a particular job will be supervised. Salusphere Global offers contractor accreditation support to help contractors prepare accurate applications. Approval still does not replace managing the actual work on your site.

Information exchange, risk assessments and induction before work starts

Once you have chosen a contractor, the next step is sharing what each side knows and agreeing how the risks will be controlled. It is part of onboarding, but it is about the specific job rather than the supplier.

Two-way information exchange and reviewing RAMS

You tell the contractor about existing hazards, operational restrictions and the people who may be affected. The contractor explains the hazards their work will bring. Together, agree how the overlapping activities will be controlled, for example through access restrictions, isolations, segregated work areas and planned timing. Make sure the findings and agreed risk management measures reach the contractor and every other employer affected on site.

A risk assessment covers the hazards, how likely harm is and the controls needed. A method statement sets out step by step how the work will be done. RAMS is a common term for the two together, but not every job legally needs a document with that name. A simple, familiar, low-risk maintenance job may only need a suitable risk assessment and proportionate instructions. Complex or higher-risk work calls for a more detailed method written for that specific task. Demolition or dismantling of a structure is different: it has to be planned to prevent danger, and the arrangements have to be written down before work begins.

When you review contractor risk assessments, look at the documents for the actual job and site conditions, not just company policies, certificates or insurance. Then check that the method on paper is the method being used on site. Documentation cannot stand in for safety measures that have not actually been put in place.

Proportionate induction and site information

A proportionate contractor induction focuses on site-specific risks, relevant rules, the people the contractor will be working near, emergency arrangements and welfare. Depending on the site and the job, it might cover:

• Access and sign-out: how contractors enter and leave, and which areas are restricted.
• Emergencies: fire procedures, escape routes and how to report accidents.
• Facilities: shared facilities, first aid and plant authorisations.
• Named contact: who to speak to about hazards, changes or questions during the work.

An induction gives people information at the start of the job. It does not replace supervision, coordination or communication as conditions change. Your own staff who deal with contractors need to be able to review risk assessments, use permits correctly where you have them, and challenge or stop unsafe work.

In the opening scenario, better coordination would mean the site contact walking the work area with the contractor before starting. Together they would confirm the escape routes, note the delivery schedule, flag the staff in neighbouring areas and agree who to contact if anything changes. That way, everyone affected knows what is happening and when.

Supervision, monitoring and closing out the work safely

Managing contractors effectively does not end once work starts. Monitoring contractor performance is about how the job fits with your site, not about watching every task.

Coordinating the work while it is under way

The contractor’s employer supervises its own workers and methods. You monitor where the work meets your premises, workforce and activities. Plan contractor supervision and monitoring in proportion to the risks. Hiring a competent contractor is not a reason to stop keeping an eye on things. Day to day, that might mean checking access restrictions, isolations and shared equipment, sorting out clashing schedules and telling affected workers about changes.

Inspections help, but monitoring should include talking to contractors rather than relying on checklists alone. Regular conversations give contractors a way to raise concerns, ask questions and report new hazards. If you find unsafe work or weak controls, make the situation safe straight away. Then investigate with the contractor so the causes are dealt with and the lessons are shared.

When to pause, use a permit to work, and when to close out

A change in scope, an unexpected hazard, different equipment, a new access need or a different method can leave the original arrangements inadequate. When that happens, stop the changed activity, report it and reassess the hazards and who could be affected. Involve the site contact and anyone else affected, and agree revised controls before work starts again. HSE says a method statement should be revised when circumstances change markedly and checked against the method actually being used.

• Permits to work: HSE describes these as formal authorisations for specific higher-risk activities. They are not needed for every job and do not replace risk assessment.
• Completion check: confirm the area is safe, equipment or systems have been properly reinstated, any remaining restrictions have been communicated and records have been kept. Do not rely on the sign-out sheet alone.
• End-of-job review: note what worked, what did not and any good practice worth repeating.

Those lessons should feed into how you select contractors, run inductions and arrange work next time. If you would like a second view, you can discuss your contractor management arrangements with us.

When does CDM 2015 apply, and what are the client’s responsibilities?

Some contractor work counts as construction, which brings in extra duties for you as the client. Check whether a job falls into that category rather than assuming it does or does not.

Construction work and additional client duties

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) came into force in Great Britain on 6 April 2015. They add duties when the work is a construction project, which can include some maintenance and refurbishment, not just new builds. Not every contractor job is construction work. Where CDM does apply, the duties apply whatever the size of the project. As a commercial client, you need to:

• Arrange and resource the project: make suitable management arrangements and allow enough time and resources.
• Appoint a principal designer and principal contractor: choose designers and contractors with the appropriate skills, knowledge, experience and organisational capability. Where more than one contractor is involved, or reasonably foreseeable, the commercial client must appoint both a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing.
• Pre-construction information: Provide relevant information to designers and contractors about the site, existing hazards and foreseeable risks so these can be considered when planning and carrying out the work.
• Welfare and records: ensure suitable welfare arrangements are provided throughout the construction phase. Where more than one contractor is involved, ensure the principal designer prepares, reviews and updates the health and safety file during the pre-construction phase, with responsibility passing to the principal contractor if the principal designer’s appointment ends before the project is completed. The completed file must be retained by the client for future reference.

Owning or running the premises does not automatically make you the principal contractor. A project must be notified to HSE if it is scheduled to last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 people working on site simultaneously at any point during the project. It also has to be notified if it exceeds 500 worker-days. Notification is separate from whether CDM applies at all. HSE explains commercial client duties under CDM 2015 in more detail.

How Salusphere Global can support your contractor arrangements

Salusphere Global helps employers review their health and safety compliance arrangements, find practical gaps and decide on proportionate action. That includes reviewing or developing risk assessments that reflect real activities, and writing procedures that match daily practice. Our health and safety consultancy support works alongside management, HR and operations teams. We help prepare action plans, identify training needs and support follow-through.

We also help contractors prepare for accreditation schemes, although the decision to approve a contractor rests with the scheme or the buyer. Whether you need support managing contractors on your premises or preparing for SafeContractor, CHAS or other SSIP accreditation, Salusphere Global can help you identify gaps, strengthen your arrangements and take practical steps towards compliance.

Need help managing contractors safely? Contact Salusphere Global to discuss your contractor management arrangements and how we can support your business.

Frequently Asked Questions