Eight categories
- Hot work
- Confined space entry
- Work at height
- Lifting operations
- Excavation and backfill
- Assembly and dismantling
- Work with hazardous chemicals
- Hazardous energy — tag, lock, secure, try
Each category had its own instruction and its own block of questions; selecting the category opened that block.
The real issue: the exemption list
What weakens a permit system is usually not the list of high risk work but the list of work exempt from a permit. In the system we measured this list held six items, each with a condition and an exception column beside it — the exemption was never unconditional.
Who may extend the list
In the same system, sites could not add items to the exemption list on their own: an addition required a full risk analysis and the approval of the most senior manager on site before going to a central function. That single rule is what stops a permit system eroding over time; without it every site invents its own exception.
One job can be several categories
A job may fall into more than one category — hot work inside a confined space. In that case the question blocks are added together; the heaviest is not picked while the others are skipped. That is the commonest mistake in practice: a confined space permit is opened and the hot work questions are never asked.
What legislation says
In most countries the duty is not written as one clause listing "these jobs need a permit"; it is spread through hazard specific regulations. The category list therefore comes from the risk rather than from a statute, and the legal references are attached under each category separately.