Ensuring a suitable health and safety plan has been prepared before construction work begins

Before construction work starts you have to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable that the principal contractor has prepared a suitable health and safety plan. You can ask your planning supervisor to advise you on whether the plan is suitable. They have to do this if you request it.
You are only expected to make a decision on whether the health and safety plan is suitable from the information which is available at the start of the construction phase. For many projects, not all information relevant to the project may be available to develop the health and safety plan fully before the construction phase starts. For example, not all the design work may have been completed or many of the subcontractors who will be carrying out the work have yet to be appointed.

However, the health and safety plan should be sufficiently developed so that:

the general framework for dealing with the management organisation, emergency procedures, arrangements for monitoring, communications, and welfare is in place; and

it addresses the key tasks of the early work packages.

The degree of detail in the health and safety plan should be in proportion to the nature, size and level of health and safety risks involved in the project. Projects involving minimal risks will call for simple, straightforward plans. Large projects, or those involving significant risks, will need further detail.