Glossary

How does the health and safety file differ from the plan?

The plan manages the measures during construction and who does what and when. The health and safety file protects what comes AFTER the project: it carries the information the people doing later cleaning, maintenance, alteration, renovation and demolition need to know. They are separate documents, and the file is the one usually neglected — yet years later it is the only record that keeps a maintenance crew out of a hidden hazard.

Two documents, two time frames

PlanFile
Which periodThe construction processAfter the building is finished
Who reads itThe parties on siteWhoever does the later work
What it carriesRisks, measures, methods, schedule, responsibilitiesInformation needed for later cleaning, maintenance, alteration, renovation and demolition

Why the file is neglected

Because its benefit is invisible at handover. Yet a crew going onto the roof needs the anchor points, an alteration crew needs the hidden service routes, a demolition crew needs to know which wall is not load-bearing.

Who prepares it, where it ends up

Preparing the file and keeping it current as the work progresses are among the coordinator's duties. At the end of the project the file passes to the owner of the structure — the owner keeping it is the whole point of the file.

The measured similarity

In all three of the Turkish, EU and UK regimes the file exists as a document separate from the plan. Read side by side, it is one of the few items the three share.

Manage this in Optifora

Optifora is not a single program but a compliance platform assembled from modules. The catalogue states which module is ready today and which is on the roadmap.

See what Optifora is