Working in occupied premises risk assessment template
Work in an occupied building needs a risk assessment that protects the people who remain there as well as the people doing the job. The useful starting point is a precise work area, the occupants and their normal routes, the activity and duration, and the practical boundary between the work and occupied space. Record who controls that boundary, what services or fire arrangements will change, how people will be told, and what makes the area safe to hand back. Copy the form below and adapt it with the building occupier before work starts.
This is a task-specific blank assessment for maintenance, installation or refurbishment in an occupied office, school, care setting, hospital, shop, residential common area or similar premises. It is not permission to work in every such setting. Some activities require a construction phase plan, permits, asbestos information, infection-control arrangements, fire-system isolation, safeguarding procedures or a specialist method statement. A completed form must identify those documents and their owners.
HSE's construction public-protection guidance says that work in schools and hospitals needs careful planning, with site access and vulnerable groups considered. HSE construction guidance also calls for clear agreement with the occupier on who maintains barriers and keeps uninvolved people away. The assessment therefore cannot simply say “keep public out” without showing how that will happen during normal opening hours, deliveries, breaks and emergencies.
Before filling the form: agree the work boundary
Walk the route with the occupier or their representative. Mark the work area, storage area, waste route, delivery point, emergency exits and adjacent occupied rooms. Ask whether the building will remain open during noisy, dusty, hot, high-level or service-isolation stages. If occupants cannot be effectively separated, change the sequence, time or location. Vacating part of a building may be the safer option; do not treat “out of hours” as automatically safe if cleaners, security staff or residents will still be present.
The client or occupier should provide reliable information about building hazards and operations. Ask for asbestos information before intrusive work, service drawings where relevant, fire and evacuation arrangements, known vulnerable users, access restrictions, infection-control requirements and any permit system. HSE asbestos guidance says that asbestos must be identified before maintenance or refurbishment that may disturb it; the person carrying out work should see relevant building records and assess whether further investigation is needed. An empty asbestos field is a stop point, not an invitation to assume none is present.
Copyable occupied-premises assessment
A. Job, people and agreement
| Field | Complete for the actual premises |
|---|---|
| Building, floor, room and precise work boundary | |
| Job description, work stages, dates and occupied hours | |
| Contractor supervisor and competent assessor | |
| Client/occupier contact and decision-maker | |
| Occupant groups, including children, patients, residents, visitors or people needing assisted evacuation | |
| Other contractors, cleaning/security staff and deliveries | |
| Work-area plan, access route, storage and waste route | |
| Relevant RAMS, permits, surveys, drawings and building rules | |
| How changes and emergencies will be communicated | |
| Approval, issue/version and review trigger |
Write down who can stop the work if the agreed boundary or safe route fails. A named occupier contact matters because the contractor may not control building movements, alarms, doors or service shutdowns.
B. Segregation and occupied-building controls
| Decision | Site-specific answer, owner and check |
|---|---|
| Can the work be moved to an unoccupied time or the occupants moved? | |
| What physical barrier separates people from work, tools, dust and falling objects? | |
| Who erects, inspects and maintains it, including during breaks? | |
| How are entry points secured without obstructing escape? | |
| Which pedestrian, wheelchair and delivery routes remain safe? | |
| How are children or other vulnerable people prevented from entering? | |
| What advance notice will occupants receive and in what format? | |
| Who controls temporary changes to fire exits, alarms, doors or compartmentation? | |
| What is the trigger for evacuation, suspension or area closure? | |
| Who inspects, cleans and formally hands the area back? |
A strip of warning tape may not be an adequate barrier for a live school corridor or public shop. Choose containment and access control for the actual hazard and people. Keep the boundary effective when workers are unloading, fetching materials or away from the task.
C. Hazard and action record
| Work stage and hazard | Who may be harmed and how | Existing controls/evidence | Additional action, owner and before-start hold point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared access: people, trolleys, deliveries and vehicles | |||
| Unauthorised entry or contact with tools, cables or openings | |||
| Dust, fumes, noise or vibration reaching occupied rooms | |||
| Asbestos, hidden services or unknown building fabric | |||
| Fire, hot work, alarm isolation or changed escape route | |||
| Electricity, water, gas, heating or ventilation isolation | |||
| Work at height and falling materials over occupied routes | |||
| Slips, trips, temporary lighting and accessible routes | |||
| Infection-control or clinical/care-setting requirements | |||
| Security, privacy, safeguarding or resident welfare | |||
| Waste, sharp items, chemicals and end-of-day housekeeping |
For each row, separate a control already verified from an action still required. “PPE worn” does not control the exposure of a pupil, patient or visitor on the other side of a door. The assessment should identify the physical and organisational measure protecting them.
D. Building-system and emergency interface
| Question | Record |
|---|---|
| Which alarms, detectors, sprinklers, doors or escape routes might be affected? | |
| Who authorises and records any isolation or impairment? | |
| What temporary protection or fire watch is required by the building procedure? | |
| Which services must be isolated and proved safe before work? | |
| How will occupants be informed of a planned interruption? | |
| What happens if the work overruns or a service cannot be restored? | |
| How do workers and occupants raise the alarm and evacuate? | |
| First aid, emergency contacts and access for responders |
Never isolate a fire system or block an escape route merely because a contractor's task would be easier. The occupier's fire arrangements and competent fire-safety decision must be reconciled with the work. If that cannot be done, change the work method or suspend the stage.
E. Stage release and handback
| Check | Person, time and evidence |
|---|---|
| Area and barrier inspected before occupants pass nearby | |
| Permits, surveys and service information checked | |
| Dust/noise/ventilation and occupant controls tested | |
| Operatives briefed on routes, welfare and stop triggers | |
| Daily end-of-shift clean and secure state confirmed | |
| Services and fire provisions restored and verified | |
| Waste removed, openings closed, temporary works removed | |
| Occupier accepts the area back, with defects listed |
If the job spans several days, use the handback check at the end of each day even if the work area remains closed. A partially complete area must remain protected from occupants and cleaners. Record a named person responsible for that condition.
How to make the assessment usable
1. Describe normal building life. A corridor that is quiet at 08:00 may become a school movement route, clinic queue or delivery route an hour later. Ask about peak periods, out-of-hours users and assisted evacuation. A risk assessment that covers only the contractor's immediate working hours is incomplete if the site is left partly altered overnight.
2. Sequence the highest-impact stages. Drilling, cutting, roof work, hot work and service shutdown may need different controls from setting up or decorating. Give each stage its own access and occupancy decision. If the work can be isolated to a vacant area, the benefit is both less exposure and simpler control.
3. Make the controls verifiable. Name the type and location of barrier; show the alternate route; identify who will test an isolation; state where dust extraction or containment will be used. “Inform occupants” should say who, when, through which channel and what information they need.
4. Link specialist assessments. An intrusive job needs asbestos and service information; hazardous substances may need a COSHH assessment; hot work may need a permit; a roof or MEWP task needs its own height and rescue plan. This occupied-premises form coordinates those controls. It does not replace them.
5. Define the stop condition. Stop if a barrier is breached, an unexpected occupant enters, a planned route closes, hidden material or service is found, ventilation fails, a fire alarm is impaired without agreed protection, or the scope changes. Reassess with the occupier before restart.
Example: replacing ceiling services in an open clinic
A contractor must access ceiling voids above a corridor used by patients and staff. The first proposal is to position a platform and work around people. The joint walk-through finds that the corridor is the accessible route to a treatment room and part of the evacuation route. The team moves the ceiling work to a planned closure period and agrees an accessible alternate route. The client supplies asbestos and service information for the ceiling zone. The contractor sets a physical boundary, controls dust and dropped materials, confirms which detectors might be affected and gets the building's fire-safety lead to agree any impairment procedure. At the end, they remove debris, reinstate the ceiling and services, check the fire provision and release the route with the occupier.
That example does not certify the ceiling void or prescribe a particular barrier. Those are site-specific decisions requiring competent information.
Who is responsible?
The contractor controls its work method, workers, equipment and work-area safeguards. The occupier or client controls information and decisions about building operations, occupants, access and systems. Their duties can overlap; record the interface instead of assuming the other party will handle it. Under the HSE public-protection guidance, site access and exclusion of unauthorised people need practical measures. A signed assessment is not proof that a barrier remained in place throughout the job.
Review the assessment when occupancy changes, a new group uses the area, a work stage moves, an alarm or service arrangement changes, a barrier fails, a new hazard is discovered, or an incident or complaint shows that controls did not work. Ask affected people whether the alternate route and communications are actually usable, especially in settings with vulnerable users.
Complys and the next step
Use this form as the site-specific assessment record. The Complys RAMS area is the relevant place to consider a job method statement, while risk assessment software describes storing and managing assessments. The software should not be presented as confirming asbestos status, approving fire-system isolation, choosing an infection-control method or securing an occupied boundary. Those decisions belong to competent people with current site information.
Next step: agree the occupied-building interface with the client, complete the form with named control owners, verify each pre-start hold point, brief the workforce and record handback before reopening the area.
Source, claim and writer-side QA register — checked 5 October 2026
| Material claim | Primary source | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Public and other workers must be protected; occupied schools and hospitals need careful planning | HSE protecting the public | Controls depend on the people and premises. |
| Agree responsibility for keeping uninvolved people away in occupied premises | HSE HSG150 | No universal barrier specification in this template. |
| Asbestos information must be considered before maintenance/refurbishment that may disturb it | HSE construction asbestos | Competent survey/assessment may be required. |
| The occupied area may need to be vacated for some work | HSE HSG151 | Site-specific decision; not a universal rule. |
Cannibalisation: no exact live occupied-premises assessment form observed; this fillable interface form is distinct from generic risk assessment and RAMS explanation. Confirm repository, unpublished owners and proposed route. Product truth: links only to observed .co.uk pages and avoids claims of automated building-system or specialist approval. Jurisdiction: GB/HSE terminology; do not carry to Ireland. Links/CTA: RAMS and risk assessment software only, subject to current repo check. Writer-side QA: direct answer, usable staged form, vulnerable-user/public interface, asbestos and fire controls, stop/release gates, practical example, current primary sources. Independent whole-page and repo QA remain outstanding.