Written by Nicola Dobbie, Founder, The Site BookLast reviewed
Permits to work
Permit to work software — hot works, confined space and more
Raise, authorise, and close out permits to work from your phone. Hard time windows, named issuers, automatic expiry — and every permit lands in your audit pack.
What a permit to work actually is
A permit to work is a formal authorisation for high-risk work: a document that says exactly what work is allowed, where, between which times, what precautions must be in place, who authorised it, and who is carrying it out. CDM 2015 doesn't name permits explicitly, but they're the recognised control measure for work like hot works, confined space entry, and excavation — HSE guidance HSG250 covers permit-to-work systems in detail, and principal contractors and insurers expect to see them.
On paper, that means a carbon-copy permit pad in the site cabin — one that gets rained on, runs out, or goes home in someone's van the day the inspector visits. Digital permits fix the failure modes: the permit can't be lost, the expiry is enforced automatically rather than by memory, and the full history of what was authorised — and revoked — sits against the project, ready to show anyone who asks.
How it works
Issue a permit in under a minute — from the site cabin or the workface.
Pick the permit type
Hot works, working at height, confined space, electrical isolation, excavation, or general — six permit types covering the high-risk work UK sites actually do.
Scope the work and the time window
Where the work happens, what it involves, and the precautions in place. Every permit gets a hard start and end time — no open-ended authorisations.
Name who issued it and who holds it
Each permit records a named issuer and a named receiver, so there's never any doubt about who authorised the work and who's responsible on the ground.
It expires on time — or you revoke it early
When the work window ends, the permit expires automatically. Conditions change? Revoke it in one tap. Every permit stays on record and lands in your Audit Pack.
What's included
- Six permit types — hot works, working at height, confined space, electrical isolation, excavation, and general
- Time-boxed permits — every permit has an explicit work start and end
- Named issuer and named receiver recorded on every permit
- Precautions captured against the permit before work starts
- Live view of active permits per project — see what's authorised right now
- One-tap revoke when conditions change, kept on the record
- Automatic expiry — a lapsed permit can't quietly stay 'live'
- Full permit history per project — active, expired, and revoked
- Permits included in the project Audit Pack automatically
- Issue permits from your phone at the workface — web and mobile app
If an inspector — or your insurer — asks who authorised the hot works, you've got the answer in two taps.
No hunting through a soggy permit pad. Open the project, show the permit: who issued it, who held it, what precautions were in place, and exactly when it expired.
A permit pad can go missing. A permit history can't.
Free Starter vs Pro
Your first project is free — no card needed. Pro removes the limits when you're ready to run every job through The Site Book.
Starter
£0
Get a feel for it on a real job, free.
- First project free
- RAMS generator
- CPP generator
- Site inductions
- PDF download
- Worker sign-off
Pro
£30/mo
billed yearly (£360/yr) · £39/mo monthly
Save £108/year on annual
Everything in Starter, plus:
- Unlimited projects
- COSHH library
- Toolbox talks
- Google Drive, Xero and Zapier integrations
- Save £108/yr vs monthly
Cancel online anytime. Export everything if you leave.
What's included at each tier
Starter
£0- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
Pro
£30/mo- Toolbox talks
- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
Business
£199/mo- Toolbox talks
- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
- Up to 5 internal team logins
- Up to 25 active site portal users
- Site attendance check-in/check-out
- Multilingual worker inductions (9 languages)
- Slack Site Ready readiness checks
Site Control
£675/site/mo- Toolbox talks
- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
- Up to 5 internal team logins
- Up to 25 active site portal users
- Site attendance check-in/check-out
- Multilingual worker inductions (9 languages)
- Slack Site Ready readiness checks
- Permanent entrance QR: guest sign-in and contractor self-join
- CSCS credential capture, review and expiry alerts
- Digital induction gating before check-in
- Live people-on-site, attendance and audit-grade exports
- Single sign-on (SSO) with Okta or Microsoft Entra
- Public REST API with scoped account keys
- Signed real-time webhooks into your own systems
Running live sites with subcontractors? Site Control is the per-site enterprise tier above Business — entrance QR sign-in, CSCS checks, induction gating, live attendance and audit-grade exports. From £675/site per month, plus £5,000 setup.
Common questions about permits to work
What is a permit to work?
A permit to work is a formal, documented authorisation for high-risk work — it says what work is allowed, where, between which times, what precautions must be in place, who authorised it, and who is carrying it out. It's the recognised way to control work like hot works, confined space entry, and excavation, where a misunderstanding about what's happening on site can be fatal. HSE guidance HSG250 sets out the principles of permit-to-work systems. The permit closes the loop: work can't start until someone competent has authorised it, and it stops being authorised when the permit expires.
When is a hot works permit required?
Whenever work produces flames, sparks, or enough heat to start a fire — welding, cutting and grinding, brazing, soldering, and torch-applied roofing are the classic cases. Many insurers make a hot works permit a condition of cover on construction projects, and principal contractors routinely require one before any hot works starts on their site. The permit forces the right questions before the torch is lit: is combustible material cleared, is a fire extinguisher to hand, who's doing the fire watch, and when does the authorisation end.
Are permits to work a legal requirement?
Permits to work aren't named as a specific requirement in CDM 2015. But you do have a legal duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to provide safe systems of work, and a permit-to-work system is the recognised control measure for high-risk activities — it's what HSE guidance HSG250 describes, and it's what an inspector, principal contractor, or insurer expects to see when hot works, confined space entry, or similar work is happening. In practice: not naming permits in the regulations doesn't make skipping them defensible.
What permit types does The Site Book include?
Six: hot works, working at height, confined space, electrical isolation, excavation, and a general permit for other high-risk work. Every permit records the location, a description of the work, the precautions in place, a hard start and end time, and the named issuer and receiver. That covers the permit types most UK builders and principal contractors actually get asked for — and the general type picks up anything site-specific.
What happens when a permit expires?
It stops being active — automatically. Each permit has an explicit work end time, and once that passes it moves from the active list to the expired history. If conditions change before then, you can revoke the permit in one tap and it's closed immediately, with the revocation kept on record. Nothing is deleted: every permit you've ever issued on a project stays in the history and is listed in the project's Audit Pack, so you can show exactly what was authorised, when, and by whom.
Which plan includes permits to work?
Permits to work are part of the Pro plan and every plan above it — Pro, Business, and Site Control all include them. The free Starter tier doesn't. Pro also brings the rest of the site-operations toolkit permits sit alongside: the incident and near-miss log, site diary, toolbox talks, COSHH assessments, worker cert tracking, and the merged Audit Pack that bundles your permits in with the rest of your compliance evidence.
Where it helps and where it doesn't
Pros
- Six UK-relevant permit types: hot works, working at height, confined space, electrical isolation, excavation, and general
- Hard time window on every permit with automatic expiry when the work window ends
- Named issuer and named receiver recorded on each permit
- One-tap revoke when conditions change, kept on the record
- Every permit, active, expired, or revoked, is listed in the project's Audit Pack
Cons
- No counter-signature step for the permit holder
- No gas-testing or isolation-certificate registers
- Permit templates aren't customisable per company
Why The Site Book
- UK construction compliance tool that ships RAMS + CPP + COSHH + inductions (readable and acknowledgeable in 9 worker languages, with the language audit-recorded) + worker sign-off plus Business site attendance, portal users, site files, document reviews, subcontractor evidence and inspections/actions.
- AI-generated documents are site-specific from a natural-language brief, not a template library you hand-fill - cuts writing a RAMS from 2 hours to under 5 minutes.
- Worker sign-off, PCPP import, cert tracking, and document checking sit on the £39/month Pro plan, not locked behind an enterprise contract.
- Transparent pricing: Starter £0, Pro £39/month or £360/year, Business £199/month with 5 internal team logins and 25 active site portal users.
- Build RAMS for any trade - add your own work types and method statements alongside the built-in library, reusable across projects, including a ready-made Commercial Solar PV group.
- COSHH goes deep: a standalone COSHH assessment document, upload-a-Safety-Data-Sheet extraction, a site-specific substance register and an expert-reviewed library - plus per-worker RAMS sign-off and a one-click Audit Pack that merges every compliance record into one PDF.
Bin the permit pad
No card needed. No catch. Set up a real project, issue a permit to work, and see the audit trail build itself.
Compared against the competition
How TheSiteBook stacks up
Best Construction Site Access Software UK (2026)
No single tool wins for everyone: biometric platforms secure large perimeters, payroll-led tools nail time and attendance, and only The Site Book's Site Control generates the UK CDM pack while controlling per-site contractor access.
See comparison →
Best Contractor Management Software UK (2026)
UK "contractor management software" splits into two different jobs — prequalifying contractors before hire (SafeContractor, Sypro) and running them once they are on site (Collabor8Online, Re-flow, Chime, Site Control) — and The Site Book's Site Control is the on-site option that also generates the UK CDM pack.
See comparison →
The Site Book Site Control vs HammerTech
HammerTech's breadth, permit depth and turnstile hardware suit large multi-site GCs, while Site Control is lighter, UK-CDM-first and transparently priced for builders who need RAMS/CPP/COSHH generation and fast per-site rollout.
See comparison →