The Health and Safety File: What It Is, What Goes In It, and Why It Matters

The health and safety file is one of CDM 2015's most overlooked requirements. On too many projects it gets treated as an afterthought — assembled in a rush during the final week, stuffed with irrelevant paperwork, and handed over in a lever-arch file that the client shoves in a cupboard and never opens.

That's a problem, because the health and safety file exists for a specific and important reason: to provide future duty holders with the information they need to carry out construction, maintenance, refurbishment, or demolition work safely. When it's done properly, it saves lives. When it's done badly — or not at all — people get hurt.

What Is the Health and Safety File?

Under Regulation 12(5) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, the health and safety file is a document (or collection of documents) that records information likely to be needed to ensure health and safety during any subsequent work on the structure.

Think of it as the building's safety manual. Anyone who works on the structure in the future — whether that's a maintenance contractor replacing roof panels in five years or a demolition team in fifty — should be able to refer to the file and understand what they're dealing with.

Who Is Responsible?

During the project, the principal designer is responsible for preparing, reviewing, updating, and revising the health and safety file. This is an ongoing duty throughout the pre-construction and construction phases — not something that starts at handover.

If the principal designer's appointment ends before the project is complete, this responsibility passes to the principal contractor for the remainder of the construction phase.

At the end of the project, the file must be handed to the client. The client then has a duty to keep the file available for anyone who needs it for future work on the structure. If the client disposes of their interest in the structure (e.g., sells the building), the file must be passed to the new owner.

On single-contractor projects where no principal designer is appointed, the contractor should ensure the relevant information is compiled and passed to the client.

What Goes In the Health and Safety File

The file should contain information about the current project that will be relevant to future health and safety. The HSE's guidance (L153) gives the following as examples of what to include:

As-Built Drawings and Plans

• Final layout drawings showing the structure as actually built (not just the original design drawings)
• Location of services and utilities — gas, water, electricity, drainage, data
• Details of structural elements, load-bearing walls, and foundations

Design Decisions Affecting Future Safety

• Information about design choices that could affect the safety of future maintenance, repair, or demolition
• For example: if a roof was designed without edge protection anchor points, that's relevant to anyone who needs to access it later
• Details of any hazards that couldn't be eliminated through design and the assumptions made about how they'd be managed

Materials and Substances

• Details of materials used, particularly anything hazardous — asbestos-containing materials, lead paint, specialist coatings, structural adhesives
• Product data sheets for any substances that could pose a risk during future disturbance or removal
• Information about any contaminated land or groundwater encountered during construction

Maintenance and Cleaning Procedures

• Safe procedures for maintaining and cleaning the structure, especially for hard-to-reach areas
• Schedules for inspecting structural elements, drainage systems, and safety-critical installations
• Details of any specialist equipment required for safe access (e.g., cradle systems, anchor points)

Residual Hazards

• A summary of any known residual hazards and the precautions required — for example, confined spaces, fragile surfaces, or live services that couldn't be isolated during construction
• Information about pre-existing conditions discovered during the work

When to Update the File

The health and safety file isn't a one-time document. It should be updated:

• During construction, as new information emerges — unexpected ground conditions, design changes, substitution of materials
• At practical completion, to ensure all as-built information is accurate
• During any subsequent work on the structure — the client should ensure future contractors contribute relevant information to the file

If the structure undergoes significant refurbishment or alteration, the file should be reviewed and updated as part of that project's CDM arrangements.

Common Gaps

These are the issues that come up repeatedly when health and safety files are reviewed:

Padded with irrelevant material. RAMS, site induction records, toolbox talk sheets, and daily inspection reports are not health and safety file material. They're useful project records, but they won't help a maintenance contractor in ten years. Including them buries the information that actually matters.

Missing as-built drawings. The design drawings show what was planned. The as-built drawings show what was actually constructed. If steel beams were moved, service routes were changed, or foundations were deepened, the file needs to reflect reality — not the original intent.

No information about hazardous materials. If specialist coatings, sealants, or insulation materials were used, the file should include data sheets and locations. This is critical for anyone carrying out future work that might disturb these materials.

Assembled too late. When the file is thrown together in the last week of the project, information gets lost. The principal designer should be collecting and curating material throughout the project, not retrospectively.

Not handed over properly. The file must be formally handed to the client, and the client must understand what it is and why it matters. Simply emailing a zip file on the last day doesn't constitute a proper handover.

The Handover Process

A proper handover should include:

A formal meeting or briefing with the client explaining the purpose and contents of the file

A structured document — indexed, clearly organised, and in a format the client can use and update (digital is strongly preferred over paper)

Confirmation of receipt — a signed record that the client has received the file and understands their ongoing duty to maintain and make it available

Guidance on future updates — advising the client that the file should be updated whenever further construction or maintenance work is carried out

How ScopeKit Helps

ScopeKit's compliance document management tools let you build the health and safety file progressively throughout the project. As-built drawings, material records, and design risk information can be uploaded, tagged, and organised against the file structure — so by the time you reach handover, the file is already complete. Digital storage with version history means nothing gets lost, and the client receives a file they can actually use.

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The health and safety file is a legal requirement, but it's also a genuinely useful document when done well. It protects the people who come after you — the maintenance team, the refurbishment contractor, the demolition crew. Build it properly, hand it over formally, and make sure the client knows what they're holding. That's the standard the regulations expect, and it's the standard the industry should hold itself to.