Is it possible to have a rolling permit to work for a specific contractor who visits the site regularly, e.g. electrician?

Practically, yes,

But the questions would be, IMO,  Is their work being controlled adequately ?  does it need coordinating with other trades, are there times when they can't work due to other simops going on, do you know when they're onsite/left site ??  are they working on live circuits/equipment that needs isolating/may affect others etc etc

Depends if you feel comfortable Managing the Risk...........

I have issued a weekly permit to a subcontractor, but only because I'm comfortable that they operate their own robust Daily PTW system, which I spot check.

Originally Posted by: kwoodhouse

Thanks, can you give me an idea of what is required in a contractor approval form

Our process requires whatever they have out of

• Comany name, address, telephone etc. and registration number
• principal contact at the company
• scope the approval covers
• number of employees
• turnover
• insurances (with limits, renewal dates, whether it has indemnity to principal)
• contact details for the competent person for H&S
• details of any enforcement action
• copy of H&S policy
• whether they have written H&S procedures
• details of any past RIDDOR
• accident records for last 5 years
• whether they undertake roles under CDM (PC / C / PD / D)
• whether they have any independant accreditations (e.g. CHAS, etc)
• are they 9001, 14001, 18001 and if so accreditation details and expiry date
• some specific stuff regarding railway working
• do they have a written bribery and corruption policy
• do they have a written slavery and human trafficking policy
• are all staff paid statutory minimum wage? are all staff paid teh real living wage (TM)?
• who has completed form

Then our process also records who has reviewed all teh above and judged it adequate (we have three grades of approval - lowest is for basic office supplier, e.g. the outfit that provides sandwiches for meetings, highest grade is for safety critical staff, e.g. the outfit that provides us lookouts for live railway working) and who approved the decision (needs to be a director).

Any outfit in the top two grades then has performance feedback gathered (but we e.g. don't rate each batch of sandwiches from the sandwich outfit). 

Each project then has RAMS as appropriate (again, we don't ask for RAMS from the sandwich outfit, but we do from e.g. electricians).

There is a difference between approval to work and permit to work...what you describe is authority to worm on site...permit to work would be required for certain activities such at hot work or confined space and these would be task specific and time defined to the duration of the task only...