What Evidence Does a CHAS Assessment Accept?

A CHAS assessment is not decided by how you answer the questionnaire. It is decided by the evidence you upload to support those answers. Assessors can only accept what you can show them, and most delays happen when a document is missing, out of date, unsigned, generic or uploaded against the wrong question.

This guide explains the types of evidence CHAS assessors accept for health and safety, competence and insurance. It gives examples of what good evidence looks like, covers the trade-specific evidence some contractors are asked for and lists the gaps that most often hold up approval. For an overview of the scheme itself, including membership levels and the application process, see CHAS accreditation explained.

How CHAS Assesses Evidence

CHAS is a founding member of SSIP (Safety Schemes in Procurement). At its core, a CHAS assessment checks whether your business meets the SSIP core criteria, the shared benchmark for health and safety competence that SSIP member schemes recognise. Higher CHAS levels add questions from the Common Assessment Standard, covering areas such as environmental management, quality, equality and financial standing.

The assessment is completed online. You answer the questions that apply to your business, upload documents to support each answer and submit. A CHAS assessor then reviews the submission and either accepts it or raises queries asking for more information.

For each piece of evidence, the assessor is effectively asking four questions:

• Does it exist? A statement that you “carry out toolbox talks” is not evidence. A dated, signed toolbox talk record is.
• Is it current? Policies should be signed and reviewed within the expected period, insurance must be in date and training must not have expired.
• Is it yours? The document should name your business, reflect the work you actually do and identify the people who are actually responsible.
• Does it answer the question? Evidence has to match the specific question it is uploaded against. A good document in the wrong place is still usually queried.

Evidence is also judged in proportion to your business. A sole trader doing low-risk work is not expected to produce the same volume of paperwork as a 60-person contractor working at height on live construction sites. What assessors want to see is that your arrangements fit your size and your risks. The exact questions you receive depend on your trade, your headcount and the level of assessment your clients require, so always work from the current question set in your CHAS account.

Health and Safety Policy Evidence

Your health and safety policy is the document the rest of your assessment is built on. Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, a business with five or more employees must have a written policy. CHAS generally expects to see one regardless of size, because it is the clearest evidence that health and safety is managed deliberately.

Assessors look for all three parts of the policy.

Statement of intent

• A short statement of your commitment to health and safety and your objectives
• Signed and dated by the most senior person in the business, such as the owner or managing director
• Reviewed within the last 12 months, with the review date clearly visible

Organisation and responsibilities

• The person with overall responsibility for health and safety, named by role and ideally by name
• Who manages day-to-day health and safety, supervision and site safety
• The duties of employees and, where you use them, subcontractors
• Your source of competent health and safety advice, whether an in-house person or an external adviser

Arrangements

This section explains how you manage the risks of your work in practice. Typical headings include risk assessment, training and induction, accident and incident reporting (including RIDDOR), first aid, fire and emergency procedures, hazardous substances (COSHH), work equipment and maintenance, working at height, manual handling, subcontractor management, employee consultation, and monitoring and review.

Assessors often test the arrangements against the rest of your submission. If your policy says you hold monthly toolbox talks or quarterly site inspections, expect to be asked for records that prove it. It is better to describe a simple arrangement you actually follow than an impressive one you do not.

Competent health and safety advice

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to have access to competent help in meeting their health and safety duties. CHAS asks how you meet this requirement. Acceptable evidence usually takes one of two forms:

• In-house competence: certificates showing that a named person holds a relevant health and safety qualification, supported by their experience in your type of work
• External advice: a current agreement, appointment letter or retainer with an external adviser, together with evidence of their qualifications or professional membership

Risk Assessments and Safe Systems of Work

Risk assessments are where generic documents are easiest to spot, and where many CHAS submissions are queried. The assessor wants to see that you have identified the real hazards of your work and put sensible controls in place.

Good risk assessment evidence normally includes:

• Task-specific risk assessments for the main activities you carry out, rather than one generic form covering everything
• The hazards, who might be harmed and how
• The controls already in place, following the hierarchy of control, with PPE as the last line of defence
• Any further actions needed, with a named person and target date
• The assessor’s name, the date and a planned review date

For higher-risk activities, CHAS also looks for method statements (safe systems of work). A method statement sets out the sequence of the job, the equipment and people involved, and the controls at each stage. Examples include working at height, hot works, work in confined spaces, lifting operations and electrical isolation.

Other risk evidence you may be asked for includes:

• COSHH assessments for hazardous substances you use, supported by safety data sheets
• Assessments for manual handling, noise, vibration, lone working and display screen equipment, where relevant to your work
• Fire risk assessment for your own premises
• Evidence that risk assessments are communicated to operatives, such as signed briefing sheets

A simple test before you upload: hand the risk assessment to one of your operatives. If they would not recognise the task being described, the assessor will not either.

Competence and Training Evidence

CHAS needs to see that the people doing the work have the skills, knowledge and experience to do it safely. Competence evidence is often where small contractors have the right people but the wrong paperwork.

Assessors typically accept:

• A training matrix listing each employee, the training and qualifications relevant to their role, and expiry or refresher dates
• Copies of certificates and cards, such as CSCS or trade-specific cards, first aid certificates, and plant or access equipment qualifications
• Induction records showing that new starters are briefed on your policy, their responsibilities and site rules
• Toolbox talk records, dated and signed by attendees
• Evidence of asbestos awareness training for anyone who could disturb asbestos during their work, which includes most building and maintenance trades
• Evidence of supervision arrangements for trainees and apprentices

The training matrix is particularly useful because it shows the assessor at a glance that you track competence and know when refreshers are due. Make sure the dates on the matrix match the certificates you upload, and that nothing on it has expired.

Monitoring and review

Competence also covers how you check that your arrangements work. Assessors may ask for site inspection records, internal audits, your accident and near-miss log, and evidence of management review, such as notes of a meeting where accidents, inspections and training were discussed and actions agreed. If you have had no reportable incidents, a signed statement confirming this, supported by your accident book, is usually acceptable.

Subcontractor management

If you use subcontractors or labour-only workers, CHAS will want to see how you select and control them. Useful evidence includes your written selection procedure, a completed pre-qualification check for a subcontractor you have used, copies of the insurance and accreditation you checked, and records of the site induction you gave them.

Insurance and Company Documents

Insurance is one of the simplest areas to get right and one of the most common reasons for a query. Assessors normally look for:

Evidence	What the assessor checks
Employers’ liability insurance	Required by law if you have employees, with a minimum of £5 million cover. The certificate must be current and in your company’s name.
Public liability insurance	Current certificate with a level of cover appropriate to your work. Many clients set their own minimum, so check tender requirements.
Professional indemnity insurance	Usually only relevant if you provide design or advice, for example electrical or mechanical design.
Company details	Registered company name and number that match your insurance, policies and CHAS account.

The most common insurance problems are simple: a certificate that expires during the assessment, a policy in a trading name that does not match the registered company, or a schedule that does not show the level of cover. Check every certificate before you upload it and set a reminder to upload renewals as soon as they arrive.

If you apply for a higher CHAS level, you may also be asked for company documents that go beyond health and safety, such as environmental and quality policies, an equality and diversity policy, a modern slavery statement where applicable, and information on financial standing.

Trade-Specific Evidence (e.g. Electrical)

Beyond the core health and safety evidence, CHAS may ask for evidence that relates to the particular risks of your trade. The aim is the same: to show that the people doing specialised work are competent to do it and that the specific hazards are controlled.

Examples include:

• Electrical contractors: registration with a competent person scheme such as NICEIC or NAPIT, current qualifications for the relevant edition of BS 7671, safe isolation procedures and records that test equipment is maintained and calibrated
• Gas and heating engineers: Gas Safe registration and evidence of the categories each engineer is qualified for
• Working at height: scaffold inspection records, and IPAF or PASMA qualifications for powered access and mobile towers
• Plant and lifting: operator competence cards, lifting plans and thorough examination records under LOLER
• Asbestos: asbestos awareness training, procedures for checking the asbestos register before work, and licensed contractor arrangements if you work with licensable asbestos
• Cleaning and facilities services: COSHH assessments for the chemicals you use and equipment training records

If you are an electrical contractor, our separate guide to CHAS for small electrical contractors covers the trade-specific evidence in more detail.

Common Evidence Gaps

Most CHAS queries fall into a small number of patterns. Avoiding them is the quickest way to shorten your assessment.

1. Unsigned or out-of-date policy. The statement of intent has no signature, is signed by someone who has left the business or has not been reviewed within 12 months.
2. Template documents that were not tailored. Policies or risk assessments that name another company, describe trades you do not carry out or refer to roles you do not have.
3. Generic risk assessments. One assessment for “general building work” instead of assessments for the tasks you actually do.
4. No evidence behind the policy. The arrangements promise toolbox talks, inspections or audits, but no records are provided.
5. Expired insurance or training. A certificate that runs out before or during the assessment.
6. No evidence of competent advice. The policy names an adviser, but there is no agreement or evidence of their qualifications.
7. Weak subcontractor controls. You use subcontractors but cannot show how you check their competence and insurance.
8. Evidence uploaded against the wrong question. A good document placed where the assessor does not expect it, or one large file with no indication of which page answers the question.
9. Unreadable files. Phone photos of documents, password-protected files or scans that are too faint to read.

Before submitting, build one folder for your evidence with clear sections for policy, risk, competence, insurance, monitoring and subcontractors. Name each file so its content and date are obvious, for example “Health and Safety Policy – signed 2026-09.pdf”. Upload PDFs rather than photos, and if one document answers several questions, point the assessor to the relevant page or section.

Frequently Asked Questions

What evidence types do CHAS assessments accept?

CHAS accepts documentary evidence that shows how your business manages health and safety in practice. This usually includes a signed and dated health and safety policy, task-specific risk assessments and method statements, COSHH assessments, a training matrix with supporting certificates, induction and toolbox talk records, current insurance certificates, evidence of competent health and safety advice, and records of inspections, incidents and reviews. Trade-specific evidence may also be requested.

Can I use templates for my CHAS documents?

Templates can be a useful starting point, but they must be tailored to your business. Assessors routinely reject documents that name other companies, describe work you do not do or contain roles and procedures that do not exist in your business.

Does CHAS accept photographs as evidence?

Photographs can support some answers, such as welfare facilities or signage, but they should not replace written records. Where you are uploading a document, a clear PDF is far more likely to be accepted than a photo of a printed page.

What if I have fewer than five employees?

The legal requirement for a written health and safety policy applies to businesses with five or more employees, but CHAS generally expects to see a written policy from smaller businesses too. For a small contractor, a short and proportionate policy that reflects how you actually work is enough.

How long do I have to answer an assessor’s query?

CHAS sets a deadline for responding to queries, which is shown in your account. Responding quickly with the correct evidence is the best way to avoid your assessment being delayed or closed.

How recent does my evidence need to be?

Your health and safety policy should normally have been signed or reviewed within the last 12 months. Insurance certificates must be valid at the time of assessment, and training certificates should not have expired. Records such as toolbox talks, inspections and management reviews are most convincing when they are recent and show a regular pattern rather than a single entry.

What happens at renewal?

CHAS accreditation is renewed each year, and you will need to confirm that your evidence is still current. Keeping your evidence folder up to date during the year, including uploading new insurance certificates as they arrive and adding training and inspection records as they happen, turns renewal into a short review rather than a new project.

Will my CHAS evidence count towards other SSIP schemes?

SSIP member schemes recognise each other’s core health and safety assessments through deem-to-satisfy arrangements, so a well-prepared evidence pack can often be reused. Individual schemes and clients may still ask for information beyond the SSIP core criteria.