RAMS stands for Risk Assessment and Method Statement. It is a combined safety document used on construction sites throughout the UK to demonstrate that a task has been properly risk-assessed and that a safe method of work has been planned. Nearly every principal contractor will require a RAMS from subcontractors before any work is permitted to begin on site.
The risk assessment component identifies all foreseeable hazards associated with the task, evaluates the likelihood and severity of each, and specifies the control measures that will be implemented. The method statement component then describes the work in a logical sequence of steps, explaining exactly how it will be carried out safely, what equipment is needed, who will be involved, and what to do in an emergency.
RAMS documents are not directly mandated by a single regulation, but they are considered essential under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (which requires risk assessments) and CDM 2015 (which requires safe systems of work). In practice, no reputable main contractor will let you on site without one, and the HSE expects to see them during any investigation.
A good RAMS is specific to the task and the site. One of the most common reasons RAMS get rejected is because they are generic templates that have not been tailored to the actual conditions. The principal contractor needs to see that you have genuinely thought about the risks on their specific project, not that you have copied and pasted a document from a previous job.
Writing RAMS manually is one of the biggest time drains for construction professionals. Site Manager AI uses artificial intelligence to generate fully tailored RAMS documents in minutes. You describe the task and site conditions, and the AI produces a professional document ready for submission, complete with risk matrices, control measures, and step-by-step method statements.