What Is a RAMS Document? Risk Assessment & Method Statement Explained (UAE)

What RAMS Stands For

RAMS stands for Risk Assessment and Method Statement. It is a single health-and-safety document — typically five to fifteen pages — that a subcontractor submits to the main contractor, consultant or developer before starting work on site. In UAE construction, an accepted RAMS is usually the precondition for a permit to work, and the permit is the precondition for getting your crew through the gate.

The document has two halves that answer two different questions. The risk assessment answers "what can go wrong?": it lists each hazard of the task, who is at risk, the initial risk rating, the control measures that bring the risk down, and the residual risk that remains once those controls are applied. The method statement answers "how exactly will you do the work safely?": a numbered, step-by-step sequence of the works, with the relevant controls tied to each step, plus hold points where work must stop until a permit or inspection is in place.

Where the Format Comes From

The RAMS format originates in UK health-and-safety practice: the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the CDM 2015 regulations built the expectation that high-risk construction work is planned, risk-assessed and documented in advance. UK-style principal contractors carried the format into their international projects.

In the UAE the same format was adopted de facto. Dubai Municipality's HSE management system and Code of Construction Safety Practice, Abu Dhabi's OSHAD-SF framework and the Trakhees system in PCFC zones all expect subcontractors to submit risk assessments and method statements in essentially the UK structure. So a RAMS written for a London site and one written for a Dubai tower share the same skeleton — what changes is the local regulatory content: heat stress controls, midday work ban, emirate-specific permits and local references.

What a RAMS Document Contains

A complete RAMS follows a recognizable structure. Reviewers at main contractors and developers expect to find these sections:

• Cover page and document control — company, document number, revision, dates, author and approval signatures
• Project details — project name, site address, client, main contractor, working hours, emergency contacts
• Scope of works — precisely what work is covered, where, and what is excluded
• Reference documents — drawings, manufacturer instructions, applicable standards and regulations
• Roles and responsibilities — named individuals (supervisor, competent persons, first aider, fire watch) and competency requirements
• Plant, equipment and materials — tools with certificates, calibrated test instruments, hazardous substances
• PPE requirements — itemized per task, with EN standards
• Risk assessment — the hazard table with initial and residual 5×5 ratings and control measures
• Method statement — the numbered sequence of operations with embedded hold points
• Permits required — hot work, electrical isolation, work at height and the rest, with the issuing authority for each
• Emergency procedures, welfare arrangements and environmental controls
• Briefing and sign-off — toolbox talk record and operative acknowledgement signatures

Who Requires a RAMS — and When

The immediate requirement comes from the main contractor or developer, not from the regulator directly. Main contractors in the UAE run HSE management systems that require every subcontractor's high-risk work to be covered by an accepted RAMS before a permit to work is issued. Developers such as Emaar, DAMAC, Nakheel and Aldar layer their own requirements on top: HSE prequalification, named competent safety personnel and safety statistics. Expo City, for example, requires all contractor RAMS to be reviewed and validated before work starts.

The timing matters: the RAMS is written and submitted before mobilization, reviewed by the receiving HSE team, amended if rejected, and only then does work begin. It is a living document afterwards — when the scope, sequence or site conditions change, the RAMS is revised and re-issued.

What Happens If You Work Without One

Without an accepted RAMS you normally do not get a permit to work, and without a permit site security does not let the crew in — in managed communities like JLT, security blocks entry at the gate without a valid work permit. If work is discovered running without an accepted RAMS, the main contractor stops it, and the stoppage time, remobilization and reputational damage land on the subcontractor.

Beyond the gate, the exposure is legal and commercial. If an incident occurs during work that had no documented risk assessment and method statement, the subcontractor has no evidence that the work was planned safely — which aggravates liability with the client, the insurer and the authorities. In Abu Dhabi, HSE violations under the OSHAD-SF framework carry fines that can run from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dirhams.

Generate Your RAMS in Minutes

RamsProof is VerixHQ's RAMS generator for UAE contractors. Instead of starting from a blank Word file, you pick one of seven work-type templates — from LV electrical installation to hot works and work at height — answer a five-step wizard about your project, scope and permits, and review a generated risk assessment and method statement that is already calibrated to UAE practice: 5×5 matrix with inherent and residual scores, heat-stress controls, permit requirements with issuing authorities, and references to the Dubai Municipality Code of Construction Safety Practice, OSHAD-SF CoP 11.0 (Safety in the Heat) and the DEWA Electrical Installations Regulations 2017.

Download the draft PDF for internal review, calibrate the content with your competent person, and issue the final, watermark-free version for submission — all from the same VerixHQ account you use for SparkProof and FieldProof.

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