Health, Safety and Site Organization
What the exam tests
This domain tests risk assessment, safe systems of work, site layout, excavation and scaffold safety, lifting operations, electrical safety, fire and emergency arrangements, and the duties of site personnel. Expect scenario questions asking for the most effective control, not simply the use of PPE.
Core rules
- Apply the hierarchy of control: eliminate, substitute, engineer controls, administrative controls, then PPE. PPE is the last line and depends on correct fit and use.
- A risk assessment identifies hazards, evaluates likelihood and severity, records controls and defines review triggers. Residual risk remains after controls.
- Excavations need support or safe battering, edge protection, access, gas testing where relevant, and inspection by a competent person.
- Scaffolds must be designed or selected for the load, founded properly, tied in, provided with guardrails and toe boards, and inspected before first use and at required intervals.
- Lifting operations need a planned lift, competent operator, certified equipment and exclusion zones.
- Site layout should separate pedestrians and vehicles, provide fire escape routes and assembly points, and control storage and waste.
Worked example
A task has likelihood 4 and severity 3 on a 5 × 5 matrix, giving a risk score of 12, classed high. Engineering controls reduce likelihood to 2 while severity remains 3, giving 6, classed medium. The task may proceed under the revised method with monitoring; PPE alone would not reduce severity from 3 to 1 because it does not remove the hazard.
Traps
Treating PPE as the first control; recording a risk score without naming controls; allowing an excavation without support or inspection; using a scaffold before it is handed over; and ignoring emergency rescue arrangements for confined spaces or fall arrest. Another common error is assuming a low likelihood makes a high-severity hazard acceptable.