Starting a permit from a risk assessment

What an approved risk assessment prescribes — which permits, with which mandatory items — becomes permit drafts with a single click. On the draft, the prescribed items are already ticked and marked with a padlock (🔒): they can be removed, but only with a reason, and the reason goes into the lasting record. The recommended (✧) items can be removed freely.

Before you start

• Permission: requesting or issuing a permit — ptw:request or ptw:issue.
• Prerequisite: a risk assessment in the Approved status (see Creating a risk assessment).

When the policy forbids a permit without an assessment

Then the New permit page shows “The permit starts from the risk assessment”, and below it the list “Your approved assessments” — only those from which a permit can still start (“… prescribed permit(s) not started yet”). Click a row to get to the assessment, where step 2 below is waiting.

One permit mode (factory)

If the template is in “One permit” mode, the assessment produces one draft. The type is decided by the main hazard (hot work · confined-space entry · Ex zone); supplements (lifting, electrical work…) arrive pre-ticked as the draft’s questions (“Permit to issue: … — supplements: …”). When several types could issue it, the Permit type chooser offers the recommended one.

Steps

The create button tells you how many permits the assessment prescribed. The table lists the permits that already exist, with their status.

1. Open the approved assessment (click its number on the Risk assessment tab).

2. Click the “Create permit drafts — … prescribed” button on the Permits card. The result shows up per permit: Created — PTW-… (a link to the draft) · Already exists — PTW-… · No active template · Failed. The button can be pressed again: “Whatever already has a permit is not created again.”

3. Open the draft. In place of the Risk sheet stands the Risk assessment card: the assessment’s number (a link), the Assessor, the Approved time, the Questionnaire version, and the prescription in one sentence: “… markers · … boxes · … pre-ticked items · … declarations made mandatory”.

4. Look over the padlocked items. A 🔒 item is part of the prescription, so it is ticked. Open the small info icon (i) next to it to read which rule prescribes it. If an item really does not apply to this job, untick it: the Why does it not apply? field appears below it — write the reason (at least 5 characters). Without a reason the draft cannot be saved.

5. Decide on the recommended items. A ✧ item is a recommendation: you can remove it freely, without a reason and without a trace.

6. Answer the declarations made mandatory. Where the info icon says “The risk assessment requires an answer here.”, N/A cannot be chosen — the answer may be No, but there has to be an answer.

7. Fill in the rest and submit the request — just as with any draft (see Request a permit).

A justified deviation: the struck-through item, the reason next to it, and below it who removed it and when.

If it worked

On the draft’s Risk assessment card, under Deviations from the prescription, every removed prescribed item stands struck through, with the reason, the name and the time — or: “No deviation from the prescription.” At issue, the deviations go among the warnings of the issue signature, and on the paper of the issued permit they appear struck through, with the reason.

Common problems

What you see	Why	What to do
“Some items prescribed by the risk assessment were removed without a reason. Tick them back, or state why they do not apply.”	A 🔒 item is unticked, without a reason. The list names it.	Tick it back, or fill in the Why does it not apply? field. As long as this stands, the permit cannot be issued either.
No active template in the result of creating the drafts	Your organisation has no (active) work permit template for this type — neither the base template nor a copy of it.	Your administrator installs or activates the template (or a copy of it — if the base template is inactive, the permit starts from the copy), and you click create again — existing drafts are not duplicated.
The card says “… 0 pre-ticked items …”, and the draft has no padlock at all	The items of the work permit template carry no reference (ref) to the risk assessment template — typically because the templates were installed earlier.	Your administrator runs Refresh base permit templates (for built-in templates), or adds the references in the template editor (for your own template). Until then the prescription appears as condition text.
Items are listed under “What did NOT take effect when projected onto the template”	Part of the prescription cannot be translated onto this template (for example “Marker this template does not know: …”).	Not an error, but you need to know about it: these requirements do not appear as ticks on the paper. If needed, the template has to be extended.

Worth knowing

• The prescription is frozen. The padlocks and the reasons behind the info icon show the state at approval; editing the risk assessment template today does not rewrite them retroactively.
• How many drafts: with the built-in setting (One permit) a job gets one draft, whose type is decided by the main hazard; the supplementary hazards open its boxes. If your organisation chose Always the combined permit, the combined type is always created — if it does not cover the job’s main hazard, the assessment cannot be approved. In A separate permit per main hazard mode every main hazard gets its own permit.
• One file for the site: on the issued permit’s page, Download with the risk assessment attached (on the list, the ⋮ menu’s PDF with the risk assessment item) puts the permit and the assessment into one PDF.

Related

Creating a risk assessmentThe questions, the live prescription and the approval.

Request a permitFilling in the draft and submitting the request.

Work permit templatesThe templates, the references (ref) and refreshing the base templates.

Printing and PDFThe PDF with the annex, and the views.