Permit to work - hot work

Our permit can be used to control the fire risk from processes which use naked flames or give off high levels of heat or sparks.

When and why do you need a hot work permit?

As explained at the start of our document, the permit should be issued prior to any welding, grinding, hot air paint stripping, flame cutting, and use of blow lamps and bitumen boilers. In addition to the benefit of fire prevention, using a permit to work to manage these activities also prevents the activation of time-wasting false alarms.

You don’t, however, need to issue a permit for hot work within a workshop welding bay or similar.

Our sample document is quite thorough, but nevertheless it’s advisable to check the terms and conditions of your insurance policy and adapt the form if needed to cover any particular risks in your own premises.

What’s covered?

The first part, to be completed by the “Permit Issuer”, asks for information about the work. This includes the precise location where the job will be carried out and who will be doing it.

The second part is used to check that the expected safety measures have been taken. A number of the questions focus on fire prevention, e.g. clearing away combustible and flammable substances from the vicinity; preventing fire spreading to neighbouring areas; damping down and covering vulnerable gaps with fire-resistant materials.

For the benefit of industrial premises there’s a check that the atmosphere is not contaminated with flammable gases and that sprinklers are in working order. Amend the form accordingly if these are not applicable to your own circumstances.

The other measures relate to fire monitoring, the provision of fire extinguishers, fire procedures, the safety of the workers themselves and the prevention of false fire alarms.

Part three is used to formally authorise the work to take place within a specified time period. Part four is the receipt, completed by the supervisor in charge of the work.

On completion of the job, part five covers the “hand back”, and part six is used by the permit issuer to cancel the permit. These last parts include physical checks that there is no smouldering in the areas at risk and confirmation that the fire alarm has been returned to a fully functioning state.