What is a permit to work?

A permit to work is a formal control for particular hazardous work. It records the job, location, time window, hazards, precautions, people authorised to do it, and conditions for closing the work and returning equipment or premises to normal use. This guide uses HSE guidance for Great Britain; Northern Ireland employers should check their own regulator and legislation. A permit is meaningful only when those controls are understood and carried out on site. A signed form cannot make an unsafe job safe.

The Health and Safety Executive's permit-to-work guidance treats permits as a way to coordinate and control high-risk tasks, especially where several teams, isolations, or changes of plant state interact. HSE's HSG250 guide explains how to design and operate a system. There is no single UK statute that requires an identical permit form for every listed activity. Whether a permit is an appropriate control depends on the hazards, applicable specific regulations, and the employer's risk assessment. Some sectors and tasks have additional permit or authorisation expectations. Check those before starting the work.

When is a permit useful?

Typical candidates include hot work near combustible material, confined-space entry, intrusive electrical work, breaking containment on process equipment, excavation near services, and work at height where several controls must be maintained. This list is illustrative rather than a legal rule that every task in each category always needs the same permit. Ask what could change during the job: atmosphere, energy state, neighboring work, weather, access, or occupancy.

A risk assessment identifies hazards and controls. The permit then communicates and checks the conditions for a particular task at a particular time. It should identify the risk assessment or method statement where relevant, rather than replace either. For hot work, the existing hot-works permit template can help show the fields to consider. The site still needs to set appropriate precautions, including fire precautions and any post-work checks.

Common permit types

Hot-work permits cover activities that produce flame, heat, or sparks. Confined-space permits can set out isolation, atmosphere testing, ventilation, attendant arrangements, and rescue provisions when entry is unavoidable. Electrical permits can define isolation, proving dead, boundaries, and restoration responsibility. Excavation permits can coordinate service plans, detection, access, and ground conditions. These examples are not interchangeable. A generic permit with a new heading is unlikely to capture each hazard correctly.

Some work needs more than one control regime. A confined-space task involving welding may need coordinated entry and hot-work controls. The permit system should make interfaces visible rather than issuing independent documents that contradict one another.

From issue to handback

Before issue, the issuer confirms the job description, location, competent people, isolations, tests, neighboring activities, and emergency arrangements. The person doing the work checks that the conditions match the actual site and accepts the permit only when controls are in place. A permit has a defined validity period; if the work, location, hazards, or shift changes, the team should stop and follow the system's suspension or reissue process.

During work, the permit is a live communication tool. It should be accessible to the people controlling and doing the task. A supervisor should be able to see which permits are active and which isolations remain in force. A shift handover must identify unfinished work and changed conditions. These steps are process choices informed by the risk, not a universal statutory signing sequence.

At completion, the holder confirms the task is finished, tools and people are clear, and the area is left as agreed. The issuer or controlling person checks that plant can safely return to service and closes the permit. The separate handback and return-to-service guide covers that failure point in depth. Do not remove an isolation merely because the scheduled end time has passed.

Who signs?

The responsible business defines issuer, authoriser, holder, isolating authority, and any other role required by its system. HSE guidance emphasizes clear responsibilities and coordination. Avoid assuming the most senior manager automatically understands the technical state of the equipment. The issuer needs enough information and authority to check the precautions; the holder needs to understand and maintain them. Where contractors are involved, both sides should agree who controls the work site and how permit conditions are communicated.

Next step

Read the hot-works template for a task-specific example, then review the permit-to-work software page for the commercial route. Where the job is construction work, the CDM duty checker can help frame the separate duty-holder question. Software can support a permit process only if the people issuing and using permits keep the actual site conditions under control.

General information, not legal advice. Verify current requirements against the primary sources linked above.