If you begin to move from small contracts to larger scale contracts you will find that your clients start sending you questionnaires about health and safety.

Typical questions are:

• Have you got a health and policy statement?
• How many accidents have you had in the last three years?
• Have you had an improvement notice, a prohibition notice or a prosecution relating to health and safety in the last three years?
• Give an example of a method statement you have used.
• Give an example of a Risk asessment
• Give an example of a COSHH assessment.
• What training do you provide for staff?
• Who gives you advice on health and safety matters? What qualifications do they have?

If you are unable to fill in the questionnaire properly you are unlikely to win the work. You will almost certainly be asked to justify your answers and give examples.

On the other hand, if you can show that you understand the key health and safety aspects of your job, you are likely to be allowed onto an approved suppliers list. All government and local government contracts will ask this of you. If you want to move into local authority work, in schools or parks or housing, say, you will need to be able to answer the questions positively.

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Why do you get asked these questions? – CDM

The law says that for construction work, anyone awarding a contract must check that the supplier of services is competent in health and safety. Suppliers must also have adequate resources. This means that right through the supply chain, such checks are compulsory. It also means that if you appoint a subcontractor for anything you will need to make the same kind of checks. How detailed the checks are depends on how complex and dangerous the work to be done might be.

The regulations that make this law are called The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, referred to as CDM.

CDM also demands planning for health and safety before work starts so you should be given information about any site on which you are to work. This information should include site rules and controls and information about such things as first aid arrangements etc. If you do not get this information, you can ask for it. You should, however, be given some form of induction so that you know what to expect.

CDM safety planning also requires information from you in relation to how you will work. This will allow for planning of the schedule of the whole project by others. For instance, you may need to erect a scaffold to gain access. The scaffold may get in the way of work areas required by others. This is one of the ways that planning can improve project efficiency.