Health and Safety Files / Construction
Construction Regulations 2014
Construction Safety Files
Site-specific safety files for contractors and subcontractors, compiled around your actual scope of work and written to answer the principal contractor's health and safety specification. Ready for handover in 1–5 business days.
- Compiled to the Construction Regulations, not a downloaded template
- Mapped against the health and safety specification you were issued
- We stay on the file until it passes the access audit
Site file — cover sheet
CompliantWhat's inside
A construction file is judged on the specifics
The sections below are what an inspector or a principal contractor's auditor will page through. The difference between a file that passes and one that doesn't is almost never a missing section — it's a section that describes work you aren't doing.
The document that decides it
Your file is measured against the specification, not against a checklist
Under Construction Regulation 5, the client issues a documented health and safety specification for the project. The principal contractor turns that into requirements for every contractor on site — and then audits each file against it before granting access.
This is where generic files fail. A template covers the twelve standard sections competently, but it was written before anyone knew what this project involves. The specification asks about the particular hazards of this site: the traffic management around a live building, the permit system for hot work near a fuel line, the exclusion zone under a crane.
We start from the specification you were handed. Every requirement in it gets a corresponding entry in your health and safety plan, and every entry in the plan is backed by a document in the file. When the auditor works down their list, there's something to point at for each line.
If you haven't been issued a specification yet, say so when you call — on smaller projects it's often overdue, and knowing that changes how we build the file.
Turned away at the gate
A file that fails the access audit costs you the week, not the paperwork
Construction is the one sector where the file is checked before you're allowed to start. The delay lands on your programme, your crew is standing, and the principal contractor has a written record of a contractor who arrived unprepared.
Get the file sorted- Site access refused until the file is corrected and re-submitted
- Crew and plant standing while the documents are rebuilt
- Prohibition or contravention notice from a Department of Employment and Labour inspector
- Removal from the principal contractor's approved vendor list
- Personal liability for the responsible person after a site incident
How it works
Three stages, start to site access
Scope call
Twenty minutes on the phone. What the work is, where the site is, who you've appointed, and what the principal contractor has asked for. Send us the health and safety specification if you have it.
Compilation
We write the risk assessments, method statements and plan around your scope, populate the registers, and tell you exactly which certificates we still need from you. Usually 1–5 business days.
Handover and audit support
You get the file, indexed and ready to submit. If the principal contractor comes back with findings, we close them out. We don't consider it finished until you're on site.
Common questions
Construction safety files, answered
What is a construction safety file?
It's the documented proof that you're complying with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Construction Regulations 2014 on a specific site. Appointments, risk assessments, method statements, training records, inspection registers and statutory certificates — all written around the work you're actually there to do.
Who needs one — the principal contractor or the subcontractor?
Both. The principal contractor holds the file for the site and is legally required to obtain and audit a file from every contractor working under them. If you're a subcontractor, you'll be asked for yours during handover, and you won't get access without it.
How long does it take?
Most construction files are done in one to five business days once we have your scope of work, appointments and supporting certificates. If you have a handover date, tell us on the call and we'll work to it.
Can't I just use a template?
You can buy one, but it will usually fail the audit. The Construction Regulations require risk assessments and method statements covering the specific hazards of your work, and the principal contractor checks the file against the specification issued for that site. A template describes work that isn't happening and leaves out the work that is.
What's a health and safety specification, and do I need one before you start?
It's the document the client issues under Construction Regulation 5 setting out the health and safety requirements for the project. Your file is measured against it. It helps a great deal if you have it, but we can start without one — on smaller projects it's often issued late or not at all, and we'll build the file to withstand it arriving afterwards.
Do you cover sites outside Gauteng?
Yes. We work nationwide, with teams concentrated across Gauteng, the North West platinum belt and the Mpumalanga and Limpopo corridors. See the areas we cover.
Request a call-back
Tell us about the site. We'll call you back.
Give us the basics and a compliance specialist will be in touch within one business day to confirm scope, timing and cost.
- No obligation, and no sales sequence afterwards
- Site handover or inspection coming? Say so in the notes and we'll prioritise it
- Prefer email? info@healthandsafetyfiles.co.za