WHY WORK PERMITS? - PRINCIPLE BEHIND WORK PERMITS BASIC INFORMATION

Safe systems of work are crucial in work such as the maintenance of chemical plant where the potential risks are high and the careful coordination of activities and precautions is essential to safe working. In this situation and others of similar risk potential, the safe system of work is likely to take the form of a permit to work procedure.

The permit to work procedure is a specialized type of safe system of work for ensuring that potentially very
dangerous work (e.g. entry into process plant and other confined spaces) is done safely. Although it has been developed and refined by he chemical industry, the principles of permit to work procedures are equally applicable to the management of complex risks in other industries.

Its fundamental principle is that certain defined operations are prohibited without the specific permission
of a responsible manager, this permission being only granted once stringent checks have been made to ensure that all necessary precautions have been taken and that it is safe for work to go ahead.

The people doing the work take on responsibility for following and maintaining the safeguards set out in the
permit, which will defi ne the work to be done (no other work being permitted) and the timescale in which it must be carried out.

To be effective, the permit system requires the training needs of those involved to be identified and met, and monitoring procedures to ensure that the system is operating as intended.

Permit systems must adhere to the following eight principles:

1. wherever possible, and especially with routine jobs, hazards should be eliminated so that the work can
be done safely without requiring a permit to work

2. although the Site Manager may delegate the responsibility for the operation of the permit system, the overall responsibility for ensuring safe operation rests with him/her

3. the permit must be recognized as the master instruction which, until it is cancelled, overrides all
other instructions

4. the permit applies to everyone on site, including contractors

5. information given in a permit must be detailed and accurate. It must state:

(a) which plant/equipment has been made safe and the steps by which this has been achieved
(b) what work may be done
(c) the time at which the permit comes into effect

6. the permit remains in force until the work has been completed and the permit is cancelled by the person
who issued it, or by the person nominated by management to take over the responsibility (e.g. at
the end of a shift or during absence)

7. no work other than that specifi ed is authorized. If it is found that the planned work has to be changed,
the existing permit should be cancelled and a new one issued

8. responsibility for the plant must be clearly defined at all stages.