Permits are meant for the unexpected and unusual, for all other matters its should be trained procedures.

If you digitise then it would be for anticipated issues i.e. normal activity so your tick box check list would describe a pre-ordained path which could overlook something critical.

https://press.hse.gov.uk/2023/08/25/bradford-chemical-company-fined-300k-after-workers-exposed-to-chlorine-gas/

Hi boyleblue

Not sure what you define as "brilliant".

However, there are two somewhat different issues in your Q.

1. How to record risk assessments and whatever record that then gets produced to inform those doing or overseeing the work, as to what precautions are to be taken.

By all means digitise these. You DON'T need to buy an expensive package from some other organisation to do this.

You COULD get some techie to produce a template and options for the information to be put into that template if you tell them what you want to achieve. Lots of e.g. Microsoft packages which would let you do this and CUSTOMISE to YOUR needs.

If you buy something off the shelf it might be OK if you only make widgets or have staff working in offices, but it is unlikely to do the business if your work has unusual elements or variations in how work is done.

2. Permits

I endorse what Roundtuit has said. 

IFF you avoid the tendency to overuse Permits such that they are only used for less common scenarios, then what you need is people to think about what is ACTUALLY needed, not what some proprietary product suggests might be quick and easy.

So the proprietary system might say that for work package X you need to e.g. set an exclusion zone.

But what the Permit needs to say is what that exclusion zone actually means. What are the dimensions and what will you use to build the lines?

Good luck, Peter

All his electronic stuff does my head in, like not being able to use Cash any more.

I have a FRA system on tablet that asks so many questions every time I have an answer to input it takes too much time so I have lapsed back to a paper form and once that is filled I then turn on the tablet and breeze through the assessment.

I know most people have their own smart phone but what if some do not and will you be paying for new smartphones for all.

We should have a rule that smartphones are not used at work due to potential distraction, once someone accesses their phone to read the RAMS and they get a text message, email or funny post it is difficult to ignore them.  It is for me anyway.

Originally Posted by: firesafety101

All his electronic stuff does my head in, like not being able to use Cash any more.

I have a FRA system on tablet that asks so many questions every time I have an answer to input it takes too much time so I have lapsed back to a paper form and once that is filled I then turn on the tablet and breeze through the assessment.

I know most people have their own smart phone but what if some do not and will you be paying for new smartphones for all.

We should have a rule that smartphones are not used at work due to potential distraction, once someone accesses their phone to read the RAMS and they get a text message, email or funny post it is difficult to ignore them.  It is for me anyway.

I have tried using a tablet but for me its too slow.

I will see things as I walk from space to space. I might see a dodgy fire door in room one and a poor spacing of detectors in room two along with questionable EL. So I  want to note what I see at the time I see it, and not need to scroll up or down searching the blooming form for the right section. It makes me look foolish and incompetent when I am being escorted by the client (whic is 90% of the time)


I may want to make a sketch or doodle of a part of the door, or how the wall projects, the location of the doors in that large problematic dining room, or 1001 other things that will help me remember this job a long time from now if I ever needed to

I want paper in a file that will not be corrupted by a dodgy lithium battery, or a North Korean virus or if I drop the tablet when running for the train. 

The resilience and completeness of my notes is really important to me. In a former life I was a fire investigator where the practice of making a storing copious forensic notes became second nature. It helps when writing the job up and also, God forbid, if anything goes pear shaped later on.

It also helps me sleep soundly in my bed. Whereas the cloud and USB pen drives , induce fear and insomnia ;)