Planning & documents
What is a health and safety file?
The health and safety file is the record handed over at the end of a project containing the information anyone carrying out future work on the structure needs in order to do it safely.
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<img src="https://buildoptix.co.uk/glossary/health-and-safety-file/diagram.svg" alt="health and safety file — diagram from BuildOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
<figcaption>
<a href="https://buildoptix.co.uk/glossary/health-and-safety-file">What is a health and safety file?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://buildoptix.co.uk">BuildOptix</a>
</figcaption>
</figure>It is written for a stranger. The audience is a contractor in fifteen years who was not involved, knows nothing about the project, and needs to know what is behind the wall before cutting into it.
Its content is residual risk, not the project's paperwork. Operating manuals and warranties are useful to an owner but are not the point; what belongs in the file is what is unusual, concealed or dangerous about the structure as built.
It has to survive a change of owner, which means it needs to be findable and legible as an object. A file that exists on a former contractor's server has not been handed over in any sense that helps the person who needs it.
What goes wrong in practice
- A box of manufacturers' literature with no statement of residual risks.
- Handed to whoever signed for it, with the client's facilities team never told it exists.
- As-built information omitted where the build departed from the design, which is precisely where the risk sits.