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Module 4 of 7 · 20 min

On building sites: health and safety plan, coordinator and work with special risks

Free preventive resource course: read the module, review with the questions and move on to the next one. At the end, a test and a PDF certificate.

Module 4 of 7 · Course contents

The preventive resource on site (Royal Decree 1627/1997, sole additional provision)

  • The presence of preventive resources is each contractor's responsibility.
  • The health and safety plan determines how that presence is organised.
  • If monitoring finds deficient compliance, the preventive resource gives the instructions needed to correct it immediately and reports it to the employer.
  • If it finds measures missing, insufficient or unsuitable, it reports to the employer, who acts immediately and amends the plan (article 7.4).

Who is who (article 2.1)

  • Client (promotor): the person on whose behalf the works are carried out.
  • Contractor: takes on, before the client, the execution of all or part of the works.
  • Subcontractor: takes on, before the contractor, parts or installations of the works.
  • Self-employed worker: works personally without an employment contract; if they employ others, they count as a contractor or subcontractor.
  • Health and safety coordinator during execution: a competent technician who is part of the site management team and is appointed by the client.

The health and safety plan (article 7)

It is drawn up by each contractor from the study or basic study, according to its own execution system. It may propose alternative measures with technical justification, as long as they do not lower the level of protection. Its amendments need the express approval of the coordinator (or of the site management team if there is no coordinator), and the plan must be permanently available on site.

What the coordinator does (article 9)

Coordinates the application of the principles of prevention, coordinates contractors, subcontractors and self-employed workers, approves the plan and its amendments, organises the coordination of business activities, coordinates the control of work methods and takes measures so that only authorised people enter the site.

Work with special risks (annex II, non-exhaustive list)

Especially serious burial, collapse or fall from height; chemical or biological agents of special severity; ionising radiation; proximity to high-voltage power lines; drowning by immersion; tunnels, shafts and underground earthworks; diving with underwater equipment; compressed-air caissons; explosives; and assembly or dismantling of heavy prefabricated elements.

In practiceA subcontractor erects prefabricated beams with a crane. The preventive resource is provided by that subcontractor (it is its hazardous activity) and acts as the health and safety plan says, which must be on site and which the coordinator has approved.

Source: Real Decreto 1627/1997, disposiciones mínimas de seguridad y salud en las obras de construcción (construction sites, in Spanish), sole additional provision, articles 2.1, 7 and 9, annex II

Quick review

Check that you've understood. These are questions from the final test: tap an answer to see whether it's right and why.

On a building site, which document determines how the presence of preventive resources is organised?

On site, whose are the preventive resources?

Who approves the health and safety plan and its amendments?

Module practice test

6 new questions, different from the final test. Tap an answer to see whether it is right, why, and which rule it comes from.

1. If the preventive resource finds deficient compliance on site, when does it give the instructions to correct it?

2. Who is the client (promotor) of a building project?

3. A self-employed worker who hires other workers: how do they count on site?

4. Where must the health and safety plan be?

5. Can the contractor propose alternative measures to those in the safety study?

6. Who takes the measures so that only authorised people enter the site?

Course contents