Safety file: what goes in it, who keeps it, and how to keep it current

01

What the law says a safety file is

The phrase comes from the Construction Regulations, 2014, published by the Department of Employment and Labour under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 as Government Notice R. 84 in Government Gazette 37305 of 7 February 2014. Regulation 1 defines a health and safety file as "a file, or other record containing the information in writing required by these Regulations". It is the information that counts, not the lever-arch file.

Two duties create the file:

• Regulation 7(1)(b): a principal contractor must "open and keep on site a health and safety file, which must include all documentation required in terms of the Act and these Regulations, which must be made available on request to an inspector, the client, the client's agent or a contractor".
• Regulation 7(2)(b): every contractor must, before performing any construction work, do the same, making its file available to an inspector, the client, the client's agent or the principal contractor.

So in law a safety file is a construction document with three owners: the principal contractor, each contractor under it, and the client who must see that it is kept. In everyday South African usage the term has spread well beyond building sites, which is where most of the confusion starts.

02

Who needs a safety file

The legal duty follows construction work, which the Regulations define as any work in connection with "the construction, erection, alteration, renovation, repair, demolition or dismantling of or addition to a building or any similar structure", or with the construction, erection, maintenance, demolition or dismantling of bridges, dams, canals, roads, railways, runways, sewers and water reticulation, or earthworks, excavation and piling. A contractor is "an employer who performs construction work"; a principal contractor is "an employer appointed by the client to perform construction work"; the client is "any person for whom construction work is being performed".

In an occupied office block, shopping centre, school or sectional title scheme in South Africa, that takes in more than people expect:

• Refurbishments, fit-outs and repairs: a tenant installation, a new ablution block, roof and waterproofing repairs, new ceilings.
• Building services work that alters the structure: new cable routes, plant plinths, a generator room.
• Subcontractors: under regulation 7(3), a contractor who appoints another contractor takes on the principal contractor's duties in regulation 7(1)(b) to (g), including keeping a file and the checks on each contractor it appoints.

Routine contract cleaning, guarding, hygiene services, garden services and pest control are not construction work, so the Construction Regulations do not require those companies to keep a health and safety file. Their clients ask for one anyway. The reason is in the Act itself. Under section 37(2) a client is presumed liable for a contractor's contraventions unless the parties have "agreed in writing to the arrangements and procedures between them to ensure compliance"; under sections 8 and 9 the client keeps its own duties to its staff and to anyone affected by its undertaking. A client that wants to show it took reasonable steps asks each contractor for a file of appointments, risk assessments, training records and procedures, and signs a section 37(2) agreement to go with it.

That contractual file is sensible practice and usually mirrors the construction file, but know which one you are dealing with: the construction file carries statutory duties and a handover at the end; the services file carries whatever the contract says.

03

What goes in a safety file

The Regulations set no index. The file must hold "all documentation required in terms of the Act and these Regulations", so what goes in depends on the work. For construction work, the Regulations themselves name most of the documents:

1. The client's health and safety specification (regulation 5(1)(b)), the site-specific document setting out the client's requirements, based on its baseline risk assessment.
2. The health and safety plan (regulation 7(1)(a) for the principal contractor, 7(2)(a) for each contractor), approved by the client or principal contractor and "reviewed and updated ... as work progresses".
3. Appointments in writing: the principal contractor's appointment by the client (regulation 5(1)(k)), each contractor's appointment (regulation 7(1)(c)(v)), the full-time construction manager (regulation 8(1)) and the competent person who performs the risk assessments (regulation 9(1)). Outside the Regulations, the chief executive officer's assignment of duties under section 16(2) of the Act, the 16.2 appointment, usually sits at the front.
4. Risk assessments (regulation 9(1)): the identification of hazards, an analysis and evaluation based on a documented method, the control measures and safe work procedures, a monitoring plan and a review plan. See the guide to hazard identification and risk assessment.
5. A fall protection plan (regulation 10), prepared by a designated competent person and covering the work done from a fall risk position.
6. Good standing with the Compensation Fund or a licensed compensation insurer under COIDA, which the client must check for every principal contractor (regulation 5(1)(j)) and the principal contractor for every contractor (regulation 7(1)(c)(iv)).
7. Medical certificates of fitness for employees, issued by an occupational health practitioner in the form of Annexure 3 (regulation 7(8)).
8. Induction records: nobody may enter the site without induction on its hazards (regulation 7(5)), visitors included (regulation 7(6)), and the records are kept on site (regulation 7(7)).
9. A list of contractors: the principal contractor must include "a comprehensive and updated list of all the contractors on site accountable to the principal contractor, the agreements between the parties and the type of work being done" (regulation 7(1)(f)).
10. The construction work permit, where one is needed (regulation 3(6)); a permit applies to work of more than 180 days, more than 1 800 person days, or a contract worth R13 million or more or at CIDB grade 6 (regulation 3(1)).
11. Audit reports from the periodic health and safety audits and document verification (regulation 5(1)(o) and (p)), with the inspection registers and incident records that the plan and risk assessments call for.

A file that a cleaning or security company keeps for a client usually holds the same backbone: its health and safety policies, its Compensation Fund letter of good standing, the 16.2 appointment, the section 37(2) agreement, a site-specific risk assessment, safe work procedures for chemicals, work at height and night work, safety data sheets, PPE issue and training records, and the names of the site supervisor and health and safety representatives.

04

Keeping the file current: the 30-day rhythm

A safety file opened for the tender and never touched again fails the first time someone asks for it. The Regulations build in a rhythm:

• At least every 30 days: the client must ensure that "periodic health and safety audits and document verification are conducted at intervals mutually agreed upon between the principal contractor and any contractor, but at least once every 30 days" (regulation 5(1)(o)), and the principal contractor must do the same for its contractors (regulation 7(1)(c)(vii)).
• Within seven days of each audit: the client must see that a copy of the audit report reaches the principal contractor (regulation 5(1)(p)).
• As work progresses: the health and safety plan is reviewed and updated (regulation 7(1)(a) and 7(2)(a)), and the client must "take reasonable steps to ensure that each contractor's health and safety plan ... is implemented and maintained" (regulation 5(1)(n)).
• When the risk changes: a contractor must review the relevant risk assessment "where changes are effected to the design and or construction that result in a change to the risk profile" or "when an incident has occurred" (regulation 9(7)).
• At completion: the principal contractor hands the client a consolidated health and safety file, with a record of the drawings, designs, materials used and similar information about the completed structure (regulation 7(1)(e)).

On a services contract the parties agree their own intervals; many borrow the construction rhythm of a monthly audit of the file against the site, with actions, owners and dates.

The law is moving. On 12 March 2025 the Department of Employment and Labour published draft Construction Regulations 2025 for public comment, intended to replace the 2014 regulations. Among the listed revisions are a new scope of construction work, a construction health and safety manager appointment and the "acceptance of electronic health and safety files". Until final regulations are published, the 2014 regulations apply; check before relying on regulation numbers in a contract or template.

05

What an audit or an inspector looks for

Anyone entitled to see the file is really asking one question: does it describe what is happening on this site, and is there evidence it is being followed? In practice they check:

• Currency: appointments signed by people still in post, a risk assessment dated after the last change of scope, training and medical certificates in date.
• Site-specific content: a risk assessment that names this building, its plant rooms and its hazards, not a generic template with the logo changed.
• Completeness against the people on site: every contractor on the list, every worker inducted, every subcontractor with its own file.
• Evidence of implementation: inspection registers filled in on the dates the plan says, audit actions closed out, incidents recorded and investigated and the risk assessment reviewed afterwards.
• Reporting: where a fatality or a permanent disabling injury happens on a construction site, regulation 5(3) requires the client to ensure the contractor reports to the provincial director under section 24 of the Act, in accordance with regulations 8 and 9 of the General Administrative Regulations, 2013. See the guide to incident reporting and investigation.

The weakest part of most files is the evidence of implementation. A plan says the ladders are checked before use, the chemical store is inspected weekly and the escape routes are walked each shift; the file contains the plan, and perhaps a register initialled for the month in one sitting. Section 38(1)(d) of the Act makes it an offence to wilfully furnish information in any record "which is false in any material respect", and a register completed in advance is exactly the kind of record that does not survive the question "who checked this, and when?".

06

Where the record fails, and what SiteClara does about it

The safety file holds the plan. The daily proof that the plan is followed usually lives elsewhere: a clipboard in the storeroom, a register behind the plant room door, a fault mentioned to whoever was at reception. At month end someone fills in the blanks, and when an auditor asks whether the weekly inspection was really done on the 14th, nobody can say.

SiteClara records routine checks at the place they happen. A printed QR poster, with an optional NFC tag behind it, sits at each location where a check is scheduled, such as an ablution block, a chemical store, a stairwell, a plant room door or a guard post. The contractor's staff scan or tap with their own phone, with no app to install, see the checks due there, and mark each one done or say what stopped them. The time and the named person are recorded as it happens, with a photo when one is asked for, and a fault reported there goes onto a list of open jobs until someone closes it.

A supervisor sees what is due, done and missed, gives the reason when a check was missed, and each day reviews and approves a short report that goes to the client's nominated contacts the next morning. For a contractor who has to show at the 30-day audit that the procedures in its file were followed, that is a day-by-day record made at the time, which both sides can read, instead of a register reconstructed for the meeting.

07

Questions people ask

What is the purpose of a safety file?

It keeps on site, in one place, the documents that show construction work is being managed as the law requires. Regulation 7(1)(b) of the Construction Regulations, 2014 requires the file to "include all documentation required in terms of the Act and these Regulations" and to be "made available on request to an inspector, the client, the client's agent or a contractor", so any of them can check the health and safety plan, appointments, risk assessments and records against the work. At the end of the project, regulation 7(1)(e) requires the principal contractor to hand the client a consolidated file, with a record of the drawings, designs and materials used.

How do I create a safety file?

Under the Construction Regulations, 2014, start from the client's health and safety specification (regulation 5(1)(b)) and build a site-specific health and safety plan on it (regulation 7(1)(a)). Add the appointments in writing, the risk assessments by a competent person (regulation 9(1)), a fall protection plan where there is work at height (regulation 10), proof of good standing with the Compensation Fund, medical certificates of fitness, induction records and, for a principal contractor, the list of contractors with their agreements (regulation 7(1)(f)). Open it before work starts, keep it on site and review the plan as the work progresses.

08

Where to read the official text, and a list to take away

The Department of Employment and Labour publishes the Construction Regulations, 2014: read regulation 1 for the definitions, regulation 3 for permits, regulation 5 for the client's duties, regulation 7 for the file itself and regulation 9 for risk assessments. The parent Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 sets the duties in sections 8, 9, 16, 24 and 37. Follow the draft Construction Regulations 2025 for the changes to come. The section 37(2) agreement guide covers the contract that usually travels with a services file.

Before you hand over or accept a safety file, check that:

• you know whether it is a construction file under regulation 7 or a contractual file for a services contract;
• it is kept on site and can be produced when asked;
• every appointment is in writing, signed and held by someone still in post;
• the risk assessment names this site, was done by a competent person and is dated after the last change;
• Compensation Fund good standing, inductions and medical certificates are in date for everyone on site;
• every contractor and subcontractor is listed with its agreement and the work it does;
• audits are held at least every 30 days on construction work, with actions and owners;
• the inspections the plan promises are recorded at the time they are done, by the person who did them, and not filled in afterwards.