The pre-tender stage health and safety plan is essentially a collection of information about the significant health and safety risks of the construction project. The planning supervisor to ensure that a health and safety plan is prepared and provided to the contractor before arrangements is made to carry out or manage construction work. For most projects this takes the form of a pre-tender health and safety plan the successful tender then develops in to a construction phase health and safety plan before starting work on site.
Pre-tender stage health and safety plan prepares for three main purposes
- During its development the plan can provide a focus at which the health and safety considerations of design are brought together under the control of the planning supervisor.
- The plan plays a vital role in the tender documentation. It enables prospective principal contractors to be fully aware of the project’s health and safety and welfare requirements. This will allow prospective principal contractors to have a level playing field as far as health and safety is concerned on which to provide tender submissions.
- The plan provides a template against which different tender submissions can be measured. This helps the planning supervisor to advise the client on the provision of resources for health and safety and to assess the competence of prospective principal contractors
The contents of the pre-tender stage health and safety plan will depend on the nature of the project itself.
- Nature of the project (location, nature of construction work, etc).
- The existing environment (existing services, surrounding land use, ground conditions, etc).
- Existing drawings (available drawings of the structure and the health and safety file if there is one).
- The design (information on the significant risks which cannot be avoided).
- Construction materials (health hazards from construction materials which cannot be avoided).
- Site-wide elements (positioning of site access or egress points, location of unloading, layout and storage areas, traffic routes, etc).
- Overlap with the client’s undertaking (particularly where construction work is to take place at the client’s premises).
- Site rules (could include emergency procedures, permit-to-work rules, etc laid down by the client when work takes place at the client’s premises).
- Continuing liaison (procedures for dealing with design work prepared for the construction phase)
Sample: The Pre-Tender Stage Health and Safety Plan – Download