What Health and Safety Certification Do You Actually Need on a Construction Site?

This is one of those questions that comes up on nearly every job, usually just before induction, or when a new subcontractor is due to start, and someone realises nobody’s checked their paperwork yet.

“What certifications do we actually need on-site?”

The honest answer is: it depends on what you’re doing, where you’re doing it, and who’s in control of the site. The practical answer is that there’s a baseline expectation for site access, and then there’s task-specific competence that needs proving properly.

At Hurst Setter, we spend a lot of time helping contractors and principal contractors get this right without turning it into a paperwork circus. Training is part of it, but so is planning, checking, and making sure the site setup doesn’t quietly drift into something riskier than the RAMS ever intended.

The Baseline: Proof you Understand Site Safety

On most UK construction sites, you’ll be expected to show you’ve got some recognised health and safety training before you’re allowed through the gate. In practice, that’s usually a CSCS card and a relevant level for the work you’re doing.

The main thing is that the card level matches the role. A general labourer shouldn’t be turning up with something that doesn’t fit what they’re actually doing day-to-day. And equally, if someone’s running the job, a basic card doesn’t really show the right level of safety knowledge for managing other people.

If you’re unsure where your team sits and what training is sensible, Hurst Setter provides a range of construction health and safety training (including nationally recognised courses), and we are CITB-approved.

Once you move beyond general access, certifications start to vary quickly. This is where most of the confusion sits, because people assume one certificate “covers” them.

It rarely does.

A CSCS card doesn’t replace task training. A manual handling certificate doesn’t mean you’re competent to operate a MEWP. A general site induction doesn’t automatically mean someone understands the specific controls for working over line services, or a fragile roof, or a busy logistics route.

Generally speaking, once you introduce higher-risk activities, most sites will expect to see evidence for the specific risk. A few common examples we see on real projects:

• Work at Height – harness/ restraint/ fall arrest awareness where it’s relevant, plus evidence of competence for the access method (scaffold, MEWP, ladders, towers).
• Plant and Lifting – recognised plant tickets (CPCS/ NPORS etc.) plus lifting plans and appointed person oversight where required.
• Asbestos Awareness – often expected for anyone liable to disturb the fabric of a building (especially refurbishment and maintenance)
• Hot Works – training and a proper permit system, plus fire watch arrangements that match the site (not just generic “we’ll have extinguishers”)
• Confined Spaces – only where applicable, but when it is, competence checks need to be strict.

What catches people out is not having anything; it’s something that doesn’t match the task. Or having the right thing, but it expired last month, and nobody noticed.

This is exactly why we put a lot of emphasis on risk assessments and method statements that reflect how the job is actually being done. When the RA and RAMS are right, it becomes much clearer what competence is required, what training is needed, and what checks should happen before anyone starts.

Supervisors and Managers: The Bar is Higher For a Reason

If you’re supervising work or managing a site, expectations step up. Not because it looks nice on paper, but because the role comes with decisions that affect everyone else.

Most principal contractors expect supervisors and managers to hold recognised safety training such as SSSTS / SMSTS, even if the law doesn’t name those schemes specifically. From a practical point of view, it makes sense: supervisors are the ones signing off RAMS briefings, managing interfaces between trades, deciding whether a change is acceptable, and stopping work when something doesn’t look right.

We see audits where the workface is fine, but the job still gets marked down because there isn’t clear evidence that the person controlling the work has the right level of training and understanding. That tends to be frustrating for everyone because it’s often avoidable.

If you need to get your supervisory training lined up, this is covered under our training as well.

Inductions Aren’t Optional

Every site should run a site-specific induction. People roll their eyes at inductions sometimes, but they’re one of the simplest controls a site has.

A decent induction covers the things that are genuinely unique to this job:

• Traffic routes and pedestrian segregation (what’s “live”, where the pinch points are) .
• Emergency arrangements (including what happens if phones don’t work in the building).
• Permits and site rules.
• The high-risk areas and exclusion zones.
• Welfare and reporting arrangements.

Where we often see incidents is when people rely on “how we usually do it” rather than how this site is set up. Even very experienced trades can get caught out when the environment is different, tight access, mixed-use buildings, live public interfaces, unusual deliveries, awkward sequencing.

From our side, inductions are also one of the first things we’ll look at during a site inspection: not just “is there an induction”, but whether it’s actually fit for the job and whether people on site know the rules they’ve supposedly been told.

Why Certification Matters

There’s a compliance angle and practical angle.

From a compliance point of view, contractors have duties under UK health and safety law and CDM to ensure people are competent for the work they are doing. Certification is one way of demonstrating that competence. It’s not the only way, but it’s a straightforward one, and it’s what clients, principal contractors and auditors tend to look for first.

From a practical point of view, properly trained teams generally work smoother. There’s less stopping and starting because someone didn’t realise a permit was required, or a piece of equipment needed inspection, or a method wasn’t acceptable on that site. It saves time and hassle, even if it doesn’t feel like it when you’re booking courses and chasing cards.

And if something does go wrong, your paperwork and competence checks become very relevant very quickly. We support construction accident and incident investigations, and one of the first threads we often have to pull is: was the person competent, were they briefed properly, and was the system of work suitable.

Where People Usually go Wrong

Most businesses aren’t trying to cut corners. What we usually see is one of these:

1. “We’ve always done it this way” – That’s fine until you’re on a different type of job with a different client, different interfaces, different constraints, and suddenly your “normal” way of working doesn’t meet the site rules. the fix is usually not dramatic, it’s just getting the planning and briefings aligned before work starts.
2. Training exists, but it doesn’t match the task. – Someone’s got a folder full of certificates, but nothing directly relevant to the activity happening on site. Or the certificate is too generic. Or it’s expired. This is where a proper view of your risk assessments, method statements and training matrix saves a lot of grief.
3. Site management assumes the subcontractor has checked it. – And the subcontractor assumes the principal contractor will check it. That’s why independent site audits can be so useful, they look at compliance, operating  systems, procedures and safety awareness, not just whether the work looks tidy on the day.
4. Admin is the bottleneck – On busy firms, the problem is often admin capacity rather than intent. People are trying to keep on top of cards, certs, RAMS, inspection reports, COSHH, training expiry dates, and it’s a lot. Especially when you’ve got multiple sites. We provide health and safety administration support for exactly that sort of workload, keeping the documentation accurate, current, and easy to evidence when a client asks.

A More Useful Way to Think About This

Instead of asking “what certificates do we need?”, it often helps to ask:

• What are the high-risk activities on this job?
• What controls are we relying on to keep people safe?
• What competence is needed to apply those controls properly?
• How are er checking and refreshing that competence?

When you look at it that way, certification stops being “badges for the sake of it” and becomes evidence that people understand the risks they’re exposed to and know how to manage them.

If you want a hand sense-checking what your site or your workforce actually needs, that’s the kind of thing we do every day, from training, to risk assessment, to CDM support and construction phase planning.

And click here if you just want to talk through it and get pointed in the right direction.