3.7 Temporary Works Management: BS 5975-1, Coordinator Roles & Permits to Load and Strike

Why Temporary Works Kill People

Temporary works are the engineered structures that make permanent construction possible and are then removed. They exist only for weeks or months, they are often assembled from reused components by operatives who did not design them, and they are frequently loaded to their limit on the day of a concrete pour. That combination makes them more dangerous than the permanent works they support. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has consistently identified temporary works as a high-risk area, and the classic incident pattern is depressingly repeatable: an inadequate design brief, an unauthorised change made on site to suit the plant that turned up, no independent check, and nobody formally accountable for saying "yes, you may load this".

CITB lists temporary works as a learning outcome in its own right within Module 3 of the SMSTS syllabus. As a site manager you are unlikely to design them, but you are very likely to be the person who receives a request to pour, prop or strike — and the person who has to say no.

What Counts as Temporary Works

HSE's definition is deliberately broad. Temporary works to provide structural support include:

• Shoring and trench support for excavations (trench boxes, sheet piling, drag boxes, hydraulic props)
• Propping of walls and floors during alteration and refurbishment
• Falsework supporting above-ground concrete pours until the concrete gains design strength
• Formwork giving wet concrete its shape and containing its pressure
• Scaffolds used for access or as loading platforms
• Haul roads, crane pads and working platforms for tracked and outrigger-mounted plant
• Façade retention schemes and needling in refurbishment
• Permanent works used temporarily — for example a partially cured slab used to support plant

Temporary works also cover items that people forget are engineered at all: site fencing and hoarding (which must resist wind loading), welfare and office units and their foundations, and earthworks including stockpiles that will later be removed. A hoarding blown flat across a footpath in a winter gale is a temporary works failure, not bad luck.

The Legal Framework

There is no specific set of "Temporary Works Regulations". HSE states plainly that each organisation may choose how it arranges and manages temporary works safety. The legal duties come from general law:

BS 5975-1:2024 is a British Standard, not law. It is nonetheless the recognised industry consensus on good practice, and following it is the most straightforward way to demonstrate compliance with the duties above. A contractor departing from it must be able to explain what it does instead.

The 2024 Standard Split — Know the Current Reference

BS 5975:2019 has been withdrawn and divided into two parts, published by BSI in February 2025:

• BS 5975-1:2024 — Temporary works. Management procedures for the control of temporary works. Code of practice (the procedural control, roles, register and permits)
• BS 5975-2:2024 — Temporary works. Falsework: design and implementation. Code of practice (permissible stress and limit state design of falsework, wind force calculation)

Citing "BS 5975:2008" or "BS 5975:2019" in a method statement dates the document. Both are withdrawn.

The BS 5975-1 Role Structure

HSE's guidance is emphatic on one point: the TWC must be formally appointed and have adequate authority to carry out the role, including stopping the work if it is not satisfactory. On a complex project this is typically a chartered civil or structural engineer based on site; on a simple job the main contractor may hold the role and buy in engineering advice. On smaller projects one person may hold more than one role, but each role must be explicitly assigned and documented — and a designer should not be the sole checker of their own design.

CITB runs the Temporary Works Coordinator Training Course (TWCTC) and Temporary Works Supervisor Training Course (TWSTC) within the same Site Safety Plus suite as SMSTS, and holding SMSTS is recognised as useful prior knowledge for both.

The Procedural Cycle a Site Manager Must Police

1. Design brief. A written statement of what the temporary works must do: geometry, loads (including plant, wind and construction traffic), ground conditions, constraints and the permanent works interface. A vague brief guarantees an inadequate design.
2. Design. Produced by a competent designer to a recognised standard, with calculations, drawings, materials, load limits and the erection and dismantling sequence.
3. Independent design check. BS 5975 grades the required independence by check category, escalating with complexity and consequence — from standard, restricted solutions at the lowest category through simple and then complex or comprehensive designs, up to genuinely innovative designs which require a checker from a separate organisation entirely. A design check certificate records the outcome.
4. Temporary works register. A live project document listing every temporary works item, its designer, check category, check status, permit dates, inspection regime and removal authorisation. It is the audit trail if anything fails.
5. Pre-erection inspection. Components checked for damage, correct type and correct quantity before assembly — reused props with bent pins and missing pins are endemic.
6. Erection to the design and method statement. No site improvisation. Any proposed change goes back to the designer.
7. Permit to load. Issued by the TWC once erection is verified as complete and compliant. It authorises the structure to accept its design load — for example before a concrete pour into formwork, or before fill is placed against a retaining structure. No permit, no pour.
8. In-service inspection and monitoring for the life of the temporary works, with excavations inspected at the start of every shift under CDM 2015.
9. Permit to strike / dismantle. Issued by the TWC only when it is confirmed that the permanent works can safely carry the load — for falsework, typically on the basis of concrete strength results, not the calendar. Premature striking is a recurring cause of multi-fatality collapses.

Where Site Managers Get Caught

The commercial pressure to pour on schedule is the mechanism by which nearly every temporary works failure occurs. Three practical rules protect you. First, treat the permit to load and the permit to strike as non-negotiable hold points — they are the only two moments where the whole procedural chain is verified before something can go wrong irreversibly. Second, treat any on-site modification as a new design: swapping prop types, changing centres, adding a plant load or altering the ground bearing conditions all invalidate the original calculations. Third, remember the interface risk — the most dangerous temporary works questions are usually about the permanent structure, such as whether a slab has cured enough to be back-propped or whether a wall being needled is carrying more than the drawings suggest. Those questions go to a designer, not to a gang foreman.