High-risk work control, UK wide
Permit to Work Systems
High risk work rarely fails at the point of the hazard. It fails at the interfaces, where an isolation was assumed rather than proved or where hot work carried on after the person watching for fire had left. AL23 Safety designs, rewrites and audits permit to work systems for clients UK wide.
What is a permit to work system?
A formal handover of control, not a form
A permit to work is a written authorisation, issued by a named competent person, allowing defined work in a defined place for a defined period under precautions checked before work begins. It records who proved the isolation, who accepted the conditions and how the plant is returned to service. The value sits in the checks it forces, not in the document that results.
What a permit is not matters just as much. It is not a risk assessment. It is not a method statement. It does not make an unsafe job safe, it does not create competence in the person receiving it and it does not move your legal duty onto a contractor.
Who needs one
When a permit is justified and when a method statement is enough
Overuse is a failure mode of its own. A system issuing forty permits a day becomes a signing exercise and the dangerous job loses its distinction. A method statement is the right control where work is well understood, done by one team and safe once the sequence is followed. A permit is justified where one of these applies.
- The work depends on an isolation, a lock off or a proof of dead condition before it can start.
- The hazard is created by the work itself, such as ignition sources brought into a clean area.
- Two parties must co-ordinate so one cannot restore a service while the other is inside the plant.
- Getting out is harder than getting in, as with confined spaces, excavations and roof voids.
The regulations that apply
Your legal framework, in plain terms
There is no set of permit to work regulations. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 section 2 requires safe systems of work for employees and section 3 extends that protection to contractors and others affected by your undertaking. Specific instruments then make a permit the practical answer for particular activities. On construction projects the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 add the co-ordination duties behind them.
Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 regulation 4(2)
Where entry cannot be avoided, work may only proceed under a safe system of work. The Approved Code of Practice L101 treats a permit as the expected control for anything beyond the simplest entry.
Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 regulation 14
Live working is allowed only where it is unreasonable for the conductor to be dead, where it is reasonable to work live and where suitable precautions are taken. A permit records the proof of dead condition that keeps most work outside that test.
Work at Height Regulations 2005 regulations 6 and 12
Avoid, prevent, then minimise the distance and consequences of a fall. Construction working platforms from which a person could fall 2 metres or more must have been inspected in position within the previous 7 days.
PUWER 1998 regulation 19
Work equipment must be capable of isolation from every energy source, with the isolation clearly identifiable.
MHSWR 1999 regulations 3, 5, 8 and 13
Risk assessment, arrangements, procedures for serious and imminent danger and training matched to the people doing the work.
What the service covers
From what to permit to how it gets verified
- What is permitted today, what is not and whether that split matches the real risk on site.
- Permit forms rewritten so precautions become a checklist to verify rather than a paragraph to initial.
- Published rules on when a permit is required, removing that judgement from individual supervisors.
- Isolation and lock off standards covering key control, multiple locks and proof of dead condition.
- The point at which a visiting contractor becomes subject to your permit system.
- Time limits, shift handover rules and the permit register behind them.
The standard permit types
Hot work
Welding, grinding, cutting and brazing. Controls cover combustibles, screening, extinguishers at the point of work, gas testing where a flammable atmosphere is foreseeable and a fire watch after work stops.
Confined space entry
Isolation, purging, atmospheric testing before and throughout entry, ventilation, standby personnel and the rescue equipment regulation 5 requires before anyone enters. Our confined space safety work builds these around each space rather than a template.
Electrical work
Circuit identification, isolation, locking off, proving dead with a tester proved before and after use, earthing where required and caution notices posted.
Work at height and roof work
Access method, edge protection, fragile surface identification, exclusion zones below and the platform inspection status, tied to your working at height safety arrangements.
Excavation
Services search and scanning, support or battering, spoil placement, access and inspection each shift.
Isolation and lock off
Usually a supporting certificate rather than a permit in its own right, recording every isolation point for electrical, mechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic and stored energy.
Issue, receipt, suspension, handback and cancellation
The cycle is what separates a permit from a form. Every stage needs a named person and a time.
- 01
Issue
The issuing authority goes to the location, confirms the listed precautions are physically in place and signs the permit into effect for a stated period.
- 02
Receipt
The person in charge of the work signs to confirm they have read the permit, understand its limits and accept them. The permit stays at the work location.
- 03
Suspension
Where work stops for a break, a shift end or an alarm, the permit is suspended rather than left open. Conditions are re-verified before work resumes.
- 04
Handback
The receiver confirms the work is complete or stopped, that people and tools are clear and that guards and covers are refitted.
- 05
Cancellation
The issuing authority accepts the handback, removes locks and tags in the correct order and cancels the permit.
The issuing authority is a role, not a job title. It needs knowledge of the plant and the hazard, authority to refuse or stop work and enough independence that production pressure does not decide the answer. Assess competence separately for each permit type. Isolating a motor control centre is a different competence from judging a confined space atmosphere.
The failure that matters most
The common failure is not a missing permit. It is a fully signed permit whose controls were never verified on site. Signatures collected in the office, boxes ticked in advance, a permit covering a whole week or a template carried over from a similar job all produce the same outcome. The paperwork is defensible and the work is not. When we audit, we take a live permit to the point of work and check the listed controls one by one.
Our process
We test the system as run, not as written
- 01
Review
We read your permits, procedures and register, then map which activities are permitted today against which high risk activities are not.
- 02
Field verification
We observe live permits at the work face and compare the stated controls with what is in place.
- 03
Redesign
We rewrite the permit set, the rules on when a permit applies and the roles that issue, accept and cancel.
- 04
Competence
We define what an issuing authority must know for each permit type, then deliver or specify the training.
- 05
Re-audit
We sample live permits again once the system is running. The honest test is what happens six months later.
What you get
A permit set built to be checked, not initialled
- A permit to work procedure setting out scope, roles, authorisation limits, time limits and escalation.
- A permit set covering the types your operation needs, with verification checklists rather than free text.
- An isolation and lock off standard, including multi-lock arrangements for work involving several trades.
- A role and competence matrix naming issuing authorities and acceptors, with assessment and review dates.
- A field audit report comparing signed permits against observed conditions, each finding graded.
What we need from you
Your current permits and access to live work
- Your permit forms, procedures and a sample of completed permits from the last three months.
- A site plan marking isolation points, confined spaces and high risk areas where these are known.
- Access to live work so we can watch the system as operated rather than as written.
Why AL23 Safety
One team, three disciplines behind every permit
Accountable
If your permits are signed without verification, we say so in writing and show the evidence.
Practical, not just compliant
A permit taking twenty minutes to complete gets short cut. We design around the shift pattern and the people using it.
One team, three disciplines
Hot work permits are written with fire safety input in-house, covering ignition control, compartment breaches and detection isolation together.
UK wide
We support permit systems across the UK. We design the system, test it and train your issuers. The legal duty stays with you.
Before the next high risk job
One audited permit tells you more than a folder of them
Tell us your riskiest recurring task and how it is controlled today. We will tell you whether a permit is the right answer and what your current one is missing.
Common questions
Answers, up front
Cannot see your question? Get in touch and we will answer it directly.
Contact usNot as a standalone duty. No regulation says every employer must operate permits. The requirement arrives through the duty to provide a safe system of work under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and through instruments such as the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, where a permit is the normal way to show compliance.
A method statement describes how the work will be done and stays valid for the task. A permit authorises that work to start now, here, for this period, after someone has checked the controls are in place.
No longer than the shift and usually less. Conditions change and the person who verified the isolation goes home. Multi-day work is suspended and re-issued with conditions re-checked. A permit with an open end date is not a permit.
Yes. They solve real problems around legibility, expiry dates and audit trail. They do not solve the verification problem. An electronic permit is signed from the office just as easily as a paper one.
Cost is driven by the number of permit types and sites, whether the system is rebuilt or refreshed and how much issuer training is included. A single site review with field verification and a rewritten permit set is usually measured in days rather than weeks. Tell us what is involved and we will scope it.
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