RAMS (Risk Assessment & Method Statements)

A Risk Assessment & Method Statement, or RAMS, sets out how a job will be carried out safely - the hazards involved, the controls in place, and the step-by-step method for each task. Every job in BuilderDash has its own RAMS tab, where you can generate a full draft from the job's details, edit it until it's right, and then issue it as a locked, site-ready PDF.

The draft is written to UK health and safety standards, referencing the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It's a starting point built to save you time, not a finished document - you review and correct it before it goes anywhere near a site.

How to generate and issue a RAMS

1. Open the job and go to the RAMS tab.
2. Click Generate RAMS. A panel slides in with questions already filled in from the job - contract, site address, scope of works, start date, programme, site environment, and any known hazards. Add or adjust anything, then click Generate RAMS at the bottom. The more detail you give, especially around the scope of works and site-specific hazards, the more tailored the result.
3. Generation runs in the background, so you can carry on working elsewhere. The new version shows as Generating… and is usually ready within a minute. If it fails, you'll see a Try again option.
4. Review every section and edit anything that needs it - project details, scope of works, general precautions, method statements (one per task), the risk assessment, and the required PPE and persons at risk.
5. Click Save to keep your changes as a draft.
6. When you're happy it's correct, click Issue RAMS and confirm. This locks the document as your reviewed, signed-off version.
7. Use Preview / download PDF at any point to see the RAMS as a branded PDF.

Editing and regenerating sections

Each section of the draft - staff information, general precautions, method statements, risk assessment, and PPE & persons at risk - has its own Regenerate link in its header. This re-runs the draft for just that one section and merges the result in, leaving the rest of your document, including any manual edits, untouched. It's quicker and cheaper than starting over, and you should still check the result and save it.

There's also a Regenerate option for the whole document, which re-drafts the current version in place using the same answers - handy if you want a fresh take before issuing. A New version button opens the same questions again and creates the next version as a brand new draft, useful when the scope of works has changed and an already-issued RAMS needs superseding. The version it replaces stays exactly as it was.

Versions

Every generation is kept as a numbered version - Rev A, Rev B and so on - shown as pills at the top of the tab. Click a pill to view or edit that version; the newest one is selected by default. Once a version is issued, it's locked and stays readable for good. A version can also be deleted, with confirmation, if you no longer need it.

Good to know

• A generated RAMS is always a draft first, marked Draft - under review. Nothing is issued automatically - issuing is a separate, deliberate step, and BuilderDash records who issued it and when.
• Once a version is issued, its fields become read-only. To change an issued RAMS, regenerate it, which creates a new draft rather than editing the issued one.
• The risk assessment scores each hazard on likelihood (from Highly Unlikely to Certain) and severity (from Trivial to Incapacity or Death), and works out the risk ranking for you automatically.
• Anyone who can view the job can see and download an existing RAMS; generating, editing and issuing one is limited to office and admin users.
• PDFs use the same British English house style as the rest of BuilderDash, with UK legislation references throughout.