How to write a method statement

A method statement sets out how a specific job will be carried out safely, in the order the work actually happens, naming the hazards and the controls at each step. It is not itself required by law. The legal duty is to have a safe system of work under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and to assess risk under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and if you employ 5 or more people you must record your significant findings. The method statement is how that safe system gets written down and handed to the people doing the work.

Method statement, risk assessment, RAMS

Three words for two documents, and people use them loosely enough to cause confusion on site.

The risk assessment identifies what could hurt someone and how badly, and decides the controls. It answers “what could go wrong here”.

The method statement describes how the job will be done, step by step, with those controls built into the sequence. It answers “so how are we actually doing it”.

RAMS is just the two of them issued together, which is how most main contractors want them.

Do the risk assessment first. A method statement written before you’ve assessed the risks is a description of how you were going to do the job anyway, with a safety heading on it.

What goes in one

Keep it to the job in front of you. A method statement that could apply to any job on any site is not telling anyone anything.

The job and where it is. Site address, the specific task, the dates, who the client and principal contractor are.

Who’s responsible. Named supervisor, who’s doing the work, who to call if it goes wrong. A name, not “the site team”.

Competence and training. What tickets or qualifications the work needs and confirmation the people doing it hold them.

The sequence of work. The steps in the order they happen, with the hazard and control attached to the step it belongs to.

Plant, equipment and materials. What’s being used, inspection and test records where they apply, COSHH data sheets for anything hazardous.

PPE. Specific to the task. Not a list of everything in the van.

Access, exclusion and permits. How people get to the work, who’s kept out and how, and any permit to work.

Emergencies and first aid. What happens if it goes wrong, where the first aider is, how you’d get someone out.

Waste and housekeeping. How the area is left.

Sign-off. Who wrote it, the date, and a briefing record signed by everyone doing the work.

That last one matters more than people give it credit for. An unbriefed method statement in a folder protects nobody. The briefing is the point of the document.

Writing the sequence

This is the part that separates a real method statement from a template with your logo on it.

Walk the job in your head from arriving to leaving, and write down what happens. Then, at each step, ask what could hurt someone and what stops it. The control goes on the step, not in a list at the end.

Write it for the person doing the work. Short sentences, plain words, no legal padding. If the operative can’t follow it, it doesn’t work, whatever it looks like to the client.

Worked example

Replacing a consumer unit in an occupied domestic property.

Step 3, isolate and prove dead. Hazard: electric shock from live conductors, and the supply being restored by someone else while work is in progress. Controls: isolate at the main switch, lock off with a personal padlock and keep the only key, prove dead with a GS38-compliant tester, prove the tester on a known source before and after. Warning notice at the point of isolation. Only the person holding the key removes the lock.

Step 4, remove existing unit. Hazard: falling components, sharp edges, dust in an occupied room. Controls: dust sheets down and the area screened off from the rest of the house, occupants told to stay out of the room, gloves and eye protection, old unit bagged rather than stacked on the floor.

That’s what a step looks like. Compare it with “Ensure all appropriate safety precautions are taken at all times.” One of those tells somebody what to do.

Common mistakes

Downloading a template and changing the address. Generic controls attached to a job they were never written for. Any decent principal contractor spots it immediately, and it’s worthless if something happens.

Writing it after the work has started. It’s meant to plan the work, not describe it afterwards.

Never briefing it. Unbriefed, it protects nobody and satisfies nothing.

Confusing it with the risk assessment. Assess first, then write the method around the controls.

Padding it to look thorough. Twelve pages nobody reads is worse than two pages everybody has.

Leaving it unchanged when the job changes. Different sequence, different hazards. Update it and re-brief.

Do this in FieldHive

Method statements go stale because rewriting one from scratch for every job is a miserable hour nobody has. Build a method statement free in your browser, working through the sections in order so you don’t leave a step out. Pair it with the risk assessment generator for the RAMS pack most contractors ask for, and the construction phase plan generator where CDM 2015 applies.

Aid, not advice

This guide explains what goes into a method statement and how it relates to your legal duties. It is not health and safety advice, and it does not replace a competent person assessing your specific job. For high-risk work, or anything under CDM 2015 where you are unsure of your role, get advice from a qualified H&S adviser.

Duties and thresholds checked on hse.gov.uk August 2026: Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999; the requirement to record significant findings at 5 or more employees; Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 s2.