Guide · Construction

Construction Site Inspection Report: What to Include Under UK Law

CDM 2015 and the Inspection Duty

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) place a duty on the principal contractor to plan, manage, monitor and coordinate construction phase health and safety. This includes ensuring that inspections are carried out and results are recorded.

CDM 2015 does not prescribe inspection frequency for every site element. It requires the principal contractor to take account of the risk and make decisions accordingly. What it does require. explicitly. is that the construction phase plan contains arrangements for site rules, site induction, and ongoing monitoring of site conditions. Inspection records are the evidence that monitoring is happening.

The principal designer role covers the pre-construction phase. By the time a site is active, the principal contractor carries the operational safety duty. On sites where one firm acts as both designer and contractor, both duties apply.

For notifiable projects. those lasting more than 30 working days with more than 20 workers simultaneously, or exceeding 500 person-days. notification to HSE is required before work begins. Inspection records are part of the health and safety file handed to the client at project end.

Scaffold Inspection Records Under the Work at Height Regulations

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 set specific requirements for scaffolding used as a place of work. Regulation 12 requires inspection before first use, after any event likely to have affected the stability of the scaffold (including high winds, heavy snow load, or vehicular impact), and at intervals not exceeding seven days while the scaffold remains in use.

Each inspection must be carried out by a competent person. The report must be completed before the end of the working period during which the inspection took place. It must be kept on site until the scaffold is dismantled, then kept by the employer for a further three months.

Schedule 7 of the Regulations defines the minimum content of a scaffold inspection report. It is not a long list, but every item on it is required.

Standard Items in a General Site Inspection Report

Beyond scaffold-specific records, a general construction site inspection report covers site-wide conditions. There is no single prescribed format, but standard items found in most inspection regimes include:

• Welfare facilities: toilets, washing facilities, drinking water, rest area
• Housekeeping: waste accumulation, access routes clear, storage of materials
• Access and egress: site entrance, pedestrian/vehicle segregation
• Edge protection: barriers at openings, floor holes, roof edges
• Excavations: support, edge protection, access ladders, spoil placement
• Plant and equipment: condition, operator certification, exclusion zones
• Electrical: temporary supplies, cable management, RCDs in use
• Fire precautions: extinguishers, emergency routes, hot works controls
• PPE: availability and use of required equipment
• Subcontractor activities: controls in place, segregation from other trades

Weekly site inspections by the site manager or safety officer, supplemented by daily informal checks, is the standard approach on most medium-sized projects. The weekly inspection generates the formal written record.

How Inspections Are Typically Completed. and Why Records Slip

The practical problem with site inspection records is timing. An inspector doing a walkround with a clipboard produces notes that must later be written up, typed, or copied into a form. The gap between the walkround and the record is where detail is lost.

Digital forms on tablets solve part of the problem but introduce their own friction: battery life, connectivity on site, learning a new interface, and the need to sync a device at end of day. Adoption is patchy among site supervisors and subcontract trades.

Quickler takes a different approach. The inspector completes the walkround through a WhatsApp chat. the same app already on every phone on site. Photos are attached in-chat, timestamped automatically. Voice notes for narrative fields are transcribed. The office sees the result as it comes in, with items flagged red, amber or green. No typing up afterwards. No missed syncs.

When You Cannot Produce Inspection Records

An HSE inspector arriving on site can ask to see scaffold inspection records at any time. If the last inspection report is missing, out of date, or cannot be located, the response is simple: work at height stops.

A Prohibition Notice can be served on the spot. It stops the specific activity until a valid inspection has been carried out by a competent person. The cost of a day's delay on a live construction project is rarely trivial.

Following a serious incident, the absence of inspection records is not an administrative failure. It is evidence of a systematic safety management failure. Prosecution under the Work at Height Regulations 2005 or the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 is possible. In civil claims, the absence of records makes it harder to establish that reasonable precautions were taken.

The risk is real. The remedy is a current, complete inspection record kept in a form that can be produced on demand.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often must scaffolding be inspected under UK law?

Under the Work at Height Regulations 2005, scaffolding used as a place of work must be inspected before first use, after any event likely to have affected its stability (such as high winds or an impact), and at intervals not exceeding seven days. Each inspection must be recorded and the report kept until the scaffold is dismantled.

Who can carry out a scaffold inspection?

The inspection must be carried out by a competent person. someone with sufficient training, experience and knowledge to identify hazards and assess risks. This does not require a specific qualification, but the person must be able to recognise defects and understand the structural requirements of the scaffold type. Many firms use a CISRS-qualified inspector or a site manager with relevant training and experience.

What must a scaffold inspection report contain?

Schedule 7 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 sets out the minimum content: the name and address of the person for whom the inspection was carried out; the location and description of the scaffold; the date and time of inspection; details of any matter identified that could give rise to a risk; details of any action taken; details of any further action considered necessary; and the name and position of the person making the report.

What happens if an inspector asks for records and you cannot produce them?

The absence of inspection records is treated as evidence that inspections were not carried out. This can result in a Prohibition Notice stopping work, an Improvement Notice requiring a system to be put in place, or prosecution under the Work at Height Regulations. Following a serious incident, the absence of records significantly worsens the employer's position in any investigation or civil claim.