Posted By Ruth Clark My company owns a second site that is currently empty as all staff etc have relocated to another site. However, from time to time we have contractors that carry out necessary maintenance activities, e.g. gardening, painting etc at this empty site. Is it necessary for us to have one of our employees on this site when a contractor is going to be there in order to supervise? Or is it sufficient to have a method statement and risk assessments? What else might we have to do?

Posted By David Brede Ruth, Essentially you have to risk assess the organisations you subcontract out to. Are they to be trusted to work without supervision or do they need your organisations attendance? We employ firms to do quite complicated tasks without constant supervision because they have built up a level of trust with us. You have to devise a process that tests their competence and the level of risk that your organisation imports by using them. If the risk is minimal they can work unsupervised and if not.... After that real time experience kicks in and you then refine your view of the subcontractor in the light of this.