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A hot work permit you can print today, with the fire watch already written on it

Hot work is the job most manufacturing sites permit every week and the one insurers ask about first after a fire. This permit has the precautions the Fire Protection Association recommends printed on it as a checklist, so the issuer ticks rather than writes, and the fire watch periods your insurer expects are on the form rather than in somebody’s head.

Or read it first

Prints as one A4 sheet. Check your insurer’s hot work conditions before you rely on it.

The precautions

Six things that have to be true before the first spark

These are on the form as tick boxes, and the issuer signs that each one has been checked in person. They are the Fire Protection Association’s recommendations, which is where UK insurers get their hot work conditions.

  • Clear or cover combustiblesEverything that can burn is moved at least 10 metres from the work, or where it cannot be moved, covered with fire-resistant sheeting. Floors swept. This is the precaution most fires trace back to.
  • Check the other sideWalls, floors, ducts and pipework conduct heat and carry sparks into the room next door and the void above. Somebody looks there before the work starts, and the fire watch includes it.
  • Isolate detection, and say soIf smoke or heat detectors in the area have to be isolated, the fire alarm company or your own engineer does it, the permit records it, and the permit is not closed until they are back on.
  • Extinguishers to handThe right type for the work, within reach, checked, and known to the person on fire watch. A hose reel if there is one.
  • Flammable atmospheresNo hot work where there may be a flammable vapour or dust, until it has been tested and cleared. That is the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations, not a preference.
  • The fire watchA named person, doing nothing else, present for the whole job and for at least 60 minutes after the last spark, then checking the area at intervals of no more than 20 minutes until two hours have passed. Only then is the permit signed off.

Hot work permit

Permit no. __________    Site: [site name]    Date: ____ / ____ / ________

1. The job

Exact location (building, floor, area) and what is on the other side of the walls, floor and ceiling

Work to be done (welding, cutting, grinding, torch, other)

Carried out by (company and names)    RAMS received ☐

2. Precautions checked in person by the issuer

☐ Combustibles removed to at least 10 m, or covered with fire-resistant sheeting; floors swept
☐ Far side of walls, floors and ceilings checked; openings, ducts and voids sealed or covered
☐ No flammable vapour, gas or dust present; tested where there could be   ☐ N/A
☐ Smoke / heat detection in the area isolated by: ______________ at ____:____   ☐ Not needed
☐ Sprinklers operational and not isolated   ☐ N/A
☐ Extinguishers to hand, correct type, checked: ______________    ☐ Hose reel available
☐ Gas cylinders upright, secured, flashback arrestors fitted   ☐ N/A
☐ Fire watch named below, briefed, doing nothing else, present for the whole job

3. Authorisation and acceptance

StepStatementNameSignatureTime
Issued byI have walked the area and every precaution above is in place. Hot work may proceed from ____:____ until ____:____ today only.
Accepted byI understand the work, the precautions and the fire watch arrangements, and will stop if any of them change.
Fire watchI will remain present throughout the work and for 60 minutes after, and will check the area every 20 minutes until two hours have passed.

4. Fire watch and close-out

Hot work stopped atContinuous watch until (+60 min)Check 1 (+80)Check 2 (+100)Final check (+120)
____:________:____   initials ________:____   ________:____   ________:____   ____
StepStatementNameSignatureTime
Detection restoredSmoke / heat detection in the area is back in service.   ☐ Was not isolated
Permit closedThe final check found no sign of fire, heat or smouldering. This permit is cancelled and may not be reused.

Precautions and fire watch periods from the Fire Protection Association’s RC7 and HSE guidance INDG297. Your insurer’s hot work conditions take precedence where they differ. Template from noonelite.com.

Being straight with you

What a template does not do

  • This form is built on published recommendations, not on your site. Your fire risk assessment governs, and if your insurer has issued hot work conditions with your policy, those govern the form: read them before you print this.
  • The 60 minute fire watch and the two hour close-out are the FPA figures. HSE’s own leaflet gives 30 minutes as a minimum, extended to 60 where ignition may be slow to show. The form prints the longer period because that is the one you will be asked about after a fire.
  • We are not fire safety consultants. What counts as hot work at your site, who may issue the permit and who is competent to keep a fire watch are decisions for your risk assessment and, ideally, somebody qualified.
  • A permit is a piece of a safe system of work, not the system. A hot work permit issued by somebody who did not walk the area is worse than none, because everybody believes the job is controlled.
  • Paper permits get closed early, extended by a phone call, and lost. Our permit module exists because of that and is in early access. If you issue a hot work permit most weeks, the permit page is the one to read next; if it is a few a year, this sheet is fine.

The general permit, for every other jobThe permit module, if paper is the problemThe roll call, if the alarm does go

Sources

Check any of this yourself

General information about published guidance, not fire safety advice. Your fire risk assessment and your insurer’s conditions govern what happens at your site.

Before you ask

The questions people ask about hot work permits

What counts as hot work?

Any work that produces a flame, sparks or enough heat to ignite something nearby: welding, cutting, grinding, brazing, soldering with a torch, torch-applied roofing, heat guns on paint, and burning off. The test is not the tool but whether there is anything within reach of the heat or the sparks that can burn. A grinder in a clean welding bay is a workshop job; the same grinder next to a pallet stack is hot work.

Is a hot work permit a legal requirement in the UK?

Not in those words. The law requires a safe system of work for dangerous jobs and a fire risk assessment that considers ignition sources, and where flammable atmospheres are possible the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations apply. A permit is how HSE expects a safe system of work for hot work to be evidenced, and it is a standard condition of most commercial insurance policies. So the permit is not the duty; it is the way everybody expects the duty to be shown, and the thing your insurer will ask for first.

How long should the fire watch last after hot work?

The Fire Protection Association’s RC7 recommends a continuous fire watch throughout the work and for at least 60 minutes after it stops, followed by checks at intervals of no more than 20 minutes until two hours have passed. HSE’s leaflet on gas welding and cutting gives 30 minutes as a minimum and says to extend it to 60 where a fire may be slow to show. Most insurers write the RC7 figures into their policy conditions, which is why this form prints them.

How far away do combustibles need to be?

The usual figure is 10 metres, from RC7. Anything that can burn within that distance is moved, and anything that cannot be moved is covered with fire-resistant sheeting. Sparks and slag travel further than people expect, and through gaps in floors and walls, which is why the form also asks whether the far side of the wall has been checked.

Who can issue a hot work permit?

Somebody your site has named as competent to do it: they know the area, they have walked it, they understand what the work will do and they can confirm the precautions are in place before signing. That is usually a supervisor, an engineer or the facilities manager, and never the person doing the work. For contractors, the permit is issued by your site, not by the contractor’s office.

Do contractors need a hot work permit on my site?

Yes, and it is issued by you. A contractor arriving to weld a bracket or torch a roof is doing hot work on your premises, and the fire risk is to your building. Their RAMS should arrive before they do, the permit should be issued by your named person, and the fire watch is yours to arrange unless the permit says otherwise. Insurers are explicit about this: the policy condition applies to contractors’ hot work too.

Also asked of sites like yours

The other things somebody may ask you to evidence

Each of these is a page about one standard, one duty or one visitor, written the same way as this one: what it actually asks for, what an iPad at reception records towards it, and where it does not help.

When you are ready

If the paper permit has stopped being enough

Fifteen minutes on the phone. How many hot work jobs a month, who issues them today, and what your insurer has asked for. We will tell you straight whether the module is worth your time yet.

Book a 15 minute call

If the sheet is doing the job, keep using it. We will say so on the call.

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